Desperate Palestinians scrambled for escape from northern Gaza Saturday or huddled by the thousands at a main hospital in the target zone in hopes it would be spared, as Israel intensified warnings of an imminent offensive by air, ground and sea following Hamas militants' deadly rampage in Israel a week ago.
Israel dropped leaflets from the air and redoubled warnings on social media for more than 1 million Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The Israeli military said it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a concentrated assault on Hamas militants in the north, including in what it said was their underground hideouts at Gaza City.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Be'eri and Kfar Azza, two southern border communities where Hamas militants slaughtered dozens of Israelis in their initial attack, to meet with soldiers and tour the ruins of bloodied homes. Netanyahu has faced criticism that his government has not done enough to meet with relatives of the victims.
“We are going to attack Gaza City very broadly soon,” he said, without giving a timetable for the attack against the 40-kilometer long territory. Hamas remained defiant. In a televised speech Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas official, said that “all the massacres” will not break the Palestinian people.
It was not clear how many Palestinians remained in northern Gaza by Saturday afternoon, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. An estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in one week, she said. Water has stopped coming out of taps across the territory. Amal Abu Yahia, a 25-year-old pregnant mother in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said she waited anxiously for the few minutes when contaminated water trickles from the pipes in her basement. She rations it, prioritizing her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She said she is drinking so little herself, she only urinates every other day.
Rami Swailem said he and at least five families in his building decided to stay put in his apartment near Gaza City. “We are rooted in our lands,” he said. “We prefer to die in dignity and face our destiny.” “The situation inside the hospital is miserable in every sense of the word,” he said. “The operating rooms don't stop.”“I came here with my children. We slept on the ground. We don't have a mattress, or clothes,” said Howeida al-Zaaneen, 63, from the northern town of Beit Hanoun. “I want to go back to my home, even if it is destroyed.”
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