Fadel al Otol is following the news from his home city of Gaza around the clock.
“My heart weeps for . I don’t know what fate awaits it,” the renowned archaeologist told DW over the phone from .
He managed to leave Gaza City just a few months ago, but like many other people from Gaza abroad, stays glued to the news from home. The archeologist deeply worries about his daughter and her family, along with the other people who stayed behind. He is also concerned about the many ancient sites he had tried to preserve over the past few decades, while ‘s assault on Gaza City, the largest city in the Strip, unfolds.
“Gaza is a land of culture and a cradle of civilization,” he said.
But it is not just about “antiquities of a city that has existed since 3500 BCE that were being destroyed.”
He fears that entire neighborhoods and their lived history — such Gaza’s old Zaytoun neighborhood, with its ancient Al Omari Mosque and two churches — are being destroyed.
Gaza City is one of the world’s oldest cities and has a long history of conquest and occupation. Today, many fear that Israel’s invasion of this once-bustling Mediterranean metropolis might destroy the city and forcibly displace its population forever.
Large parts of the Gaza Strip are already demarcated as “red zones” that Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military. According to the United Nations, more than 80% of the area is no longer accessible for Palestinians.
On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it already controls 40% of Gaza City and intends to increase pressure on , whose terror attack on October 7, 2023, sparked Israel’s current military campaign.
Now, the Israeli military is moving on to targeting the city’s last remaining high-rises.
‘It’s the worst Gaza has ever passed through’
In Gaza City, Amjad Shawa, head of PNGO, the Palestinian NGO network, assesses the situation daily. “People are faced with impossible decisions as to where to go and when to leave,” he says over the phone, as a loud explosion is heard in the background.
Shawa and his family were displaced to the south at the beginning of the , when Israel issued its first displacement orders. They were only able to return during the short-lived ceasefire in January.
“It’s a scary time. I think this is the worst Gaza has ever passed through. A miserable situation,” he said, adding that Israeli attacks were coming from all directions.
In recent days, Israel’s military has , in an apparent attempt to force the estimated 1 million residents out of the city before sending in ground troops and pushing deeper into the northern and eastern neighborhoods, destroying more homes on the way.
This week, an Israeli military spokesperson told residents to evacuate to the Muwasi area near Rafah in southern Gaza, which the Israeli military claims is safer, despite it having been bombed repeatedly.
Famine declared in Gaza governorate
At least 63,500 Palestinians have been killed according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with many more likely buried under the rubble. The number comes from the Hamas-run military, but is considered reliable by international organizations like the UN.
An increasing number of human rights groups and experts say that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. While a formal ruling by the International Court of Justice () on the matter may still be years in the making, the court in 2024 decided that the case of Israel committing acts in Gaza that violated the Geneva Conventions on was “plausible.”
In the meantime, the situation continues to deteriorate.
Aid workers like Shawa say that providing aid has become almost impossible, although soup kitchens are still — sometimes — functioning.
“We have very limited capacities to help, with mainly the national NGOs now working on the ground,” he said.
This comes as the UN-backed global hunger monitor IPC declared an “entirely man-made” in the Gaza governorate in late August due to an Israeli blockade and prolonged restrictions on aid distribution. This also makes evacuating on foot extremely difficult, due to exhaustion, and even more so for children, elderly people or people with special needs.
Continued displacement, no safe place to go for Palestinians
Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced, often multiple times.
“Regarding the issue of shelter and things like that, we have nothing to give to people,” Shawa said. “Thousands of families are just in the streets with no tents.”
There are no good options, Sham Mahmoud, a mother of two children, told DW on the phone.
“We hear explosions around the clock, whether in Jabalia, the eastern areas, or Gaza City itself,” said Mahmoud, who currently lives in a neighborhood in the northern part of Gaza City.
Her family was displaced to the south during the first year of war, where they slept in a tent for most of that time. She is unsure whether they will leave for western Gaza City or the south again. Transport, renting rooms — most people have no more income left to pay for this.
“Renting a place in the south would be impossible, because prices have become very high,” Mahmoud said. “My husband cannot pay the rent, even for a single room, which costs at least 1,000 Israeli Shekels ($297, €255) per month.”
She says her family will soon run out of options.
“My children are living in terror, especially at night, because of the sound of explosions. But the bombings are everywhere, even in the south,” the 30-year-old Palestinian told DW. “I do not want to expose them to danger and death.”
In recent weeks, many evacuated from the northern areas towards the western part of the city, such as Rimal, and pitched their tents or built makeshift homes. Before the war, this upscale neighborhood lining Gaza’s long Mediterranean shoreline was home to a number of hotels and restaurants.
The nearby corniche and beach used to be popular evening hangout spots offering some escape from the hardship of almost two decades of authoritarian Hamas rule and a tight Israeli closure of its land crossings, airspace and sea.
While the Israeli navy has severely restricted Palestinian fishermen from fishing here for many years, a new directive in July saw the military totally close off the sea and forbid swimming, as well. Now the beach is full of tents.
General sense of hopelessness in Gaza City
It is unclear what will happen to those who refuse to leave Gaza City. Some Israeli media reports suggest that those who remain could be seen as combatants and therefore become a target. After nearly two years of war, a general sense of hopelessness and exhaustion has set in.
“I will stay here in Gaza [City] for as long as I can, and I do not want to return to living in a tent. The bombings are everywhere, there isn’t much difference,” Ezzedine Mohammed told DW on the phone from Gaza City. The 41-year old and his family were forcibly displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip when the war began. In January, they returned north.
“Life is terrifying in every sense of the word. Every day, there is death, there is a fear of death, and the destruction of homes continues,” Mohammed said.
This was echoed by Amjad Shawa.
“Gaza is already a graveyard for our beloved ones, our memories and our dreams. Personally, I will never give up, Gaza is Gaza for me,” he said. “But what will it be for the next generation, these children went through so much they should have never experienced?”
For archeologist Fadel al Otol, there is no doubt that he wants to return. But he knows that nothing will be ever be the same.
“Gaza will be a sad city even if it is rebuilt,” al Otol said. “Stones can be rebuilt, but building a civilization takes many years”.
Edited by: M. Sass
The post ‘My heart weeps’: Voices from Gaza City amid Israel’s attack appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
