The Israeli Regime in Gaza Is Not Under Siege, but It’s Been Done! A Family of Two Gazans Trying to Get Out of Israel
The Gaza Strip was put under siege by Israel and there was no food, water, fuel, or electricity in it. It has been killing at least 1,350 people and internally displaced hundreds of thousands of others through heavy bombardments across the territory.
A lot of Palestinians were sheltered in the U.N.-run schools before the Israeli order. There is no one allowed to leave the territory and no food, water or fuel allowed in. The main Gaza power plant has completely shut.
The Biden administration is urging Israel — publicly and privately — to get humanitarian supplies into Gaza. It’s also trying to secure the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas, which include an unknown number of Americans.
Wafaa Abuzayda is trapped in Gaza with her husband and one-year-old son, and she is asking the U.S. Embassy for help. The 30-year-old is from Gaza but moved to the U.S seven years ago.
“We changed our tickets like three to four times … and then we decided to come to Gaza at this time,” she said. “And our short vacation just turned into a nightmare.”
The husband and wife and their son went on a trip from Massachusetts for two weeks. They’re not sure of when they’ll be able to go home.
Abuzayda said that she called the US embassy multiple times a day after the attack. They told her that they don’t have any updates. She tried to get in touch with the embassy in Cairo.
She said that they told them we weren’t safe, were running out of milk, and they weren’t doing anything. They keep posting about the US citizens in Israel. Every five minutes they keep reminding the people in Israel to get out of Israel.”
And there are many others struggling to leave, since major U.S. airlines have halted flights in and out of the country. The total number is unknown, but New York Rep. Mike Lawler said his district alone has “hundreds of constituents in Israel trying to get home.”
The U.S. increased the travel advisory for Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday to level three, or “reconsider travel.” The advisory for Gaza remained at four on a five point scale.
A sister-in-law and three children tried to cross the border under an Israeli air strike, but they had to turn back, according to a relative, Abuzayda.
There is no electricity. Families are using generators sparingly if they have fuel left — Abuzayda says she can only charge her phone for several hours at a time every few days. They could lose their connection to the outside world at any time, because of the sporadic access to communication.
She said that it is not safe inside or outside. The markets themselves are running low on supplies. She’s trying to make the most of the milk and diapers she has left to keep Yousef safe and spirits high.
The Israeli-Hamas War and Gaza’s First-Day General Relativistic Evacuation Driven by the Israeli-U.N. Forces
“Showing the opposite to your fear and hiding it is the hardest way to keep my son positive,” she said. He thinks this is a firework, because he has no idea. And every time I tell him, while I’m crying, ‘okay mommy, clap clap this is a fireworks, it’s nothing.’ Sometimes he will jump, he will be scared and freaking out if I’m not next to him.”
“I want you to save us,” she said as her voice broke. “Please. I have a one-and-a-half year old, I got him after six times of IVF … We have been trying to call the embassy since Saturday. Nobody’s helping, nobody’s getting back to us. Please save us.”
The fighting between Israel and Hamas entered its seventh day on Friday with many fearing a ground offensive by Israel and a decision to evacuate northern Gaza.
Israel’s military told the United Nations late Thursday that all of northern Gaza’s population needs to evacuate to the southern portion of the enclave, a U.N. spokesman said. The Israeli order gave 24 hours for more than 1 million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, to evacuate. The U.N. staff were covered by the Israeli order.
Within hours of the order Israel faced international opposition from both Hamas and other groups. The U.N. said it was impossible for such a movement to happen without dire consequences.
Human Rights Watch said the roads are rubble, fuel is scarce, and the main hospital is in the evacuation zone, making it difficult for people to leave and head south.
Israel warns more than 1 million people to evacuate northern Gaza: A U.S. response in the wake of the Jordanian attacks by Hamas
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council said that the Israeli military’s demand that 1 million people in northern Gaza relocate to its south amount to a war crime.
Meanwhile, the Hamas leadership called on Palestinians to ignore the Israeli order. “We say to the citizens of northern Gaza and Gaza City, remain steadfast in your homes,” said Hamas interior ministry spokesman Iyad Al-Bozom, because Israel’s goal, he said was to “displace us once again from our land …”
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said early Friday on the social media site X that it had moved its operations center and international staff to the southern part of Gaza.
It’s uncertain how the hospitals and clinics in northern Gaza could be evacuated. Hospitals are full in Gaza.
A simultaneous crisis unfolding is the dwindling food and water supplies that will run out in the next few days in U.N.-run shelters, Lynn Hastings, United Nations Resident Coordinator for the Palestinian territories, told NPR. She said the majority of Palestinians in Gaza do not have access to safe drinking water now, not even bottled water.
The order also comes as the United States ramps up its diplomatic and military support for Israel in the wake of the attacks by Hamas that killed over 1,200 people over the weekend.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to arrive in Israel on Friday, following Thursday’s arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Earlier Friday, Blinken met with King Abdullah II in Amman, Jordan, and was meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital. The conflict in Gaza has led to the visit of Antony to five Arab states in a few days.
Source: Israel warns more than 1 million people to evacuate northern Gaza
The Gaza Strip: A Case Study in Israel, and the U.S. Response to the COVID-19 War in the Light of Palestinian Human Rights Reports
Palestinian officials say more than 1,500 people have died in the strikes, and the United Nations reports that 340,000 Palestinians have been displaced. Those numbers will surely rise: Scores of people were killed overnight in Gaza. In the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, 17 people were killed in a bombing of a house. Rescue workers were struggling to reach all the areas hit by Israeli bombs.
Israel said Thursday it would not lift its siege of Gaza — even for the transport of humanitarian aid — until Hamas releases all remaining hostages. Between 100 and 150 people, including an unknown number of Americans, are believed to be held by the Islamist militant group that rules the Palestinian territory.
The U.S. diplomatic efforts come as concerns are growing the chaos — the worst outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza in recent memory — could spread to the occupied West Bank and different countries across the Middle East.
I agree there are many Palestinians who don’t agree with this. Missiles are fired at my children in their homes, on the entire nation of Israel. We have to defend ourselves,” he said while speaking to reporters.
There were rockets fired towards the country from Gaza on Saturday as a result of militant incursions into Israel. A group slaughtered more than 200 people at a dance music festival near the Gaza border after they overran a police station and military positions. Others raided gated communities and shot families dead, and Israeli officials estimate they took at least 100 hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Airlines and governments around the world were rushing to get visitors trapped by the raging conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip back home as the U.S. warns any future travelers to the area to rethink their plans.
Israel’s tourism economy contributes a steady share to the country’s gross domestic product. It accounted for 8.2% of the total employment and 2.5% of the GDP. With COVID-19, it dropped substantially as borders closed. The country is struggling to fully rebound from the pandemic levels of the past two decades.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, the country’s largest and busiest, says it is still working as planned. Flights into Israel are still being allowed as Israelis return home.
Delta said that it would be canceling all flights to Tel Aviv. American Airlines has suspended operations to and from Tel Aviv through Dec. 4. United has also canceled direct flights.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters earlier this week that there are “viable ground routes” for Americans if they wanted to leave Israel that way.
However, there are limited hours for some border crossings, according to Israel’s Ministry of Tourism. The agency is giving assistance to those who need it, and is giving tourists a chance to stay informed as the situation gets worse in Israel.
Tourist Israel will be providing free transportation to and from the south of Israel for anyone who needs a ride on October 15. They are also offering shuttle rides to Jordan for a fee.
Bauer said that alumni of the program have been asking their friends in Israel how they are if they can help them.
She said that Birthright Israel had never stopped trips even though they were temporarily stopped because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“I think that this is different than anything we’ve experienced in the past,” she said of the latest conflict. “It’s very unclear how long this will take.”