For a year now, civilians in the Gaza Strip have been living in fear and misery: driven back and forth by the Israeli army and plundered by Hamas.
“We are jealous of the dead, they have it behind them. “We continue to suffer in fear,” says one of the 1.9 million refugees in the Gaza Strip, describing his situation. In the last year of the war, the Israeli army gave instructions to the civilian population to evacuate regions threatened by bombs 40 times. To move into ever new “protection zones”, which ultimately do not guarantee any protection.
In recent days, the army has begun a new attack on the remaining underground pockets of the Islamist Hamas militia in the north. Israel’s army issues new evacuation orders. “Where can we go now?” asks Achmad, who fled to the south with his family a year ago. In the summer he left the chaotic tent cities and returned to his home in the north. More precisely: into the ruins that were once his house: “It’s better to die at home than somewhere outside.”
Back to the ruins
100,000 people never fled the north, which was so hotly contested after the war began. They live in areas without hospitals, schools and a regular food supply. These are not guaranteed in the southern protection zones either. Safe zones were established as fighting moved south in the spring.
In late summer, a wave of evacuees began to return to the still smoking ruins in the north. Until a few weeks ago it was comparatively quiet there. But the war always catches up with everyone. Wherever protection zones for civilians are set up, Hamas also appears. Their gunmen hide among the civilian population, sometimes even in women’s clothing. They take control of the convoys with international aid for the care of internally displaced people.
At the beginning of the war it ran into many problems. In the last few months she has been more undisturbed, although not problem-free. Only a few trucks roll into the evacuees’ tent camps. The Israeli army is shelling Hamas cells wherever they appear. Also in the protection zones, in aid convoys, in the UN schools.
Hamas is looting
Hamas wants international aid supplies, confiscating not only food but also scarce fuel for itself.
Whatever is left goes to the dealers. They sell the goods in the markets at completely inflated prices. Hamas “earned” half a billion dollars in this way. She uses the money to recruit new fighters who can then use the wages paid to support their relatives. Fodder for cannon fodder.
Those who can afford the prices on the market are not necessarily among the “rich”. Almost everyone is unemployed and has lost their source of income. But even those who could live off their savings don’t always have access.
The banks are hardly working anymore, but Hamas is omnipresent. It can hardly continue its armed struggle against Israel. But in everyday life she maintains control over the population with her weapons.
Winter is coming soon
Naaman al Jarad can rarely afford to shop at the market for his family. He has a wife and six daughters, but his brothers’ families are also there. They are primarily dependent on international aid, which only reaches the tent cities sporadically. Now she comes less often again.
The Jarads’ tent was looted a few weeks ago. That’s why they now live on a small blanket near the sea. Like on a completely overcrowded beach. They have repeatedly moved to new protection zones seven times, as the Israeli army demanded. “Where is there room for us?” asks Naaman. Winter is coming soon.