'We have nothing.' As Israel attacks Rafah, Palestinians are living in tents and scavenging for food
Deir Al-Balah (AP): The tent camps stretch for more than 16 kilometres (10 miles) along Gaza's coast, filling the beach and sprawling into empty lots, fields and town streets. Families dig trenches to use as toilets. Fathers search for food and water, while children scavenge in garbage and wrecked buildings for scraps of wood or cardboard for their mothers to burn for cooking.
Over the past three weeks, Israel's offensive in Rafah has sent nearly a million Palestinians fleeing the southern Gaza city and scattering across a wide area. Most have already been displaced multiple times during Israel's nearly 8-month-old war in Gaza, which is aimed at destroying Hamas but has devastated the territory and caused what the United Nations says is a near-famine.
The situation has been worsened by a dramatic plunge in the amount of food, fuel and other supplies reaching the UN and other aid groups to distribute to the population. Palestinians have largely been on their own to resettle their families and find the basics for survival.
“The situation is tragic. You have 20 people in the tent, with no clean water, no electricity. We have nothing,” said Mohammad Abu Radwan, a schoolteacher in a tent with his wife, six children, and other extended family.
“I can't explain what it feels like living through constant displacement, losing your loved ones,” he said. “All of this destroys us mentally.”
Abu Radwan fled Rafah soon after the Israeli assault on the city began on May 6 as bombardment neared the house where he was sheltering. He and three other families paid USD 1,000 for donkey carts to take them to the outskirts of Khan Younis, about 6 kilometres (3.6 miles) away, where it took a day living outside before they could assemble the materials for a makeshift tent. Next to the tent, they dug a toilet trench, hanging blankets and old clothes around it for privacy.
Families usually have to buy the wood and tarps for their tents, which can run up to USD 500, not counting ropes, nails and the cost of transporting the material, the humanitarian group Mercy Corps said.
Israeli authorities controlling all entry points into Gaza have been letting greater numbers of private commercial trucks into the territory, the UN and aid workers say. More fruits and vegetables are found in markets now, and prices on some have fallen, Palestinians say.
Still, most homeless Palestinians can't afford them. Many in Gaza have not received salaries for months and their savings are depleting. Even those who have money in the bank often can't withdraw it because there is so little physical cash in the territory. Many turn to black market exchanges that charge up to 20 per cent to give cash for transfers from bank accounts.
Meanwhile, humanitarian convoys with supplies for the UN and other aid groups to distribute for free have fallen to nearly their lowest levels in the war, the UN says.
Previously, the UN was receiving several hundred trucks a day. That rate has dropped to an average of 53 trucks a day since May 6, according to the latest figures from the UN humanitarian office OCHA on Friday. Some 600 trucks a day are needed to stave off starvation, according to USAID.
In the past three weeks, most of the incoming aid has entered through two crossings from Israel in northern Gaza and via a US-built floating pier taking deliveries by sea. The two main crossings in the south, Rafah from Egypt and Kerem Shalom from Israel, are either not operating or are largely inaccessible for the UN because of fighting nearby. Israel says it has been letting hundreds of trucks through Kerem Shalom, but the UN has only been able to collect about 170 of them on the Gaza side over the past three weeks because it can't reach the crossing.
Entry of fuel has fallen to about a third of what it was before the Rafah offensive, according to OCHA. That reduced amount has to be stretched between keeping hospitals, bakeries, water pumps and aid trucks working.
The American humanitarian group Anera “is having difficulty distributing what we are able to bring in to the people who need it because there's so little fuel for trucks,” its spokesperson Steve Fake said.
Most of those fleeing Rafah have poured into a humanitarian zone declared by Israel that is centred on Muwasi, a largely barren strip of coastal land. The zone was expanded north and west to reach the edges of Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah, both of which have also filled with people.
“As we can see, there is nothing humanitarian' about these areas,” said Suze van Meegen, head of operations in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has staff operating in Muwasi.
Much of the humanitarian zone has no charity kitchens or food market, no hospitals operating, only a few field hospitals and even smaller medical tents that can't handle emergencies, only pass out painkillers and antibiotics if they have them, according to testimony from Mercy Corps. “It's just a matter of time before people begin to suffer greatly from food insecurity,” the group said.
The Muwasi area is mostly coastal dunes with no water resources or sewage systems. With human waste deposited near the tents and garbage piling up, many people suffer from gastrointestinal diseases such as hepatitis and diarrhea, as well as skin allergies and lice, Mercy Corps said.
One aid worker who fled Rafah said he was lucky and could afford to rent a house in Deir al-Balah. “You can't walk” in the town from all the tents that have arisen, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because his agency had not authorised him to speak.
Many people he sees in the street are yellow with jaundice or hepatitis, and “the stench is disgusting” from the sewage and piles of garbage.
The war between Israel and Hamas has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
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'Unjust' war imposed on Iran should end: Omar
Srinagar (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the "unjust" war imposed on the people of Iran should end and peace should prevail, asserting that the US and Israel do not get to decide the leadership of the country.
He said it is for the people of Iran to decide about their leadership.
"At the end of the day, what we want is peace. We want this unjust war that has been imposed on the people of Iran to stop. As I have said time and again, America and Israel don't get to decide who the leader of Iran is. Israel and the US don't get to decide who the Supreme Leader is," Abdullah told reporters here.
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The chief minister said Iran's assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was not just the leader of Iran, "he was an acknowledged religious leader for the entire Muslim Ummah".
"So, this should not be seen as a conflict with Iran; it has far wider implications," he added.
Abdullah welcomed the Indian ships being allowed to carry fuel through the Strait of Hormuz.
"Anything that allows us to keep our prices low is a good thing, whether that means buying oil from Russia or being able to transport our gas and fuel supplies through the strait, which otherwise is closed for everybody else. It is good for us," he said.
However, he added that while India will benefit from the move, "ultimately we will benefit when peace prevails. And we want this unjust war to end".
