Nine months into Gaza war, Palestinians see no relief in sight

Nine months into this hellish war, things just keep getting worse. Since Israel invaded Rafah in May, there have been no exit points from Gaza. Everyone I know who is still alive there remains trapped.

They closed the Rafah gate and then intensified the bombing.

Gazans have already evacuated their homes and tents many times, but since the assault in Rafah has intensified, all I know is that my family, like thousands of others, are sleeping on the street. No shelter. No water. No food.

Their tents have been burnt, there is no fresh water and the sea water that was once drunk out of desperation is contaminated, while the sea itself has become a point of attack through Israeli air raids. As for food, there are no aid trucks and whatever is available within Gaza is being sold for extortionate prices.

'Phase C'

Last week, I heard that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that we are in Phase C of operations.

This is supposed to mean an end to the most intense fighting. I understand it's because they want to send Israeli soldiers to the northern border with Lebanon to focus on the war there.

But in fact, the reality is that Phase C is just a new way to try and kill us. There are no safe areas.

Israel has been attacking whole neighbourhoods in the south of Gaza. That means there are thousands more people whose homes have been destroyed.

On Monday, the Israeli army carried out a surprise attack in Khan Younis, just weeks after a sudden withdrawal of the troops. They returned threatening residential neighbourhoods, and evacuated the European Hospital, causing further displacement.

Mohamed Nasman, a nurse at the hospital told me: "Suddenly, the army began communicating with residents, displaced people, and medical teams via recorded messages requesting us to evacuate, including from the Fukhari area, where the hospital is located.

"After the wounded were evacuated to Nasser hospital, our hospital went out of service, so we decided on the second day to leave the hospital for fear of siege and storming."

Meanwhile, in the north of Gaza in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, Israeli forces conducted a military operation that forced thousands more to leave, heading towards the already beleaguered south.

Continued displacement

Eyewitnesses there, like my friend Rawan Qwider, told me that she was looking out of her glassless window, through the frame, and witnessed hundreds of people walking, clutching their belongings.

“It looked like they were displaced from somewhere, but I did not give importance to the matter and said that there were definitely people returning to their home,” Qwider said.

Nobody knew what was happening.

As she continued to watch, she saw an Israeli tank coming behind the people. There were other families that were screaming as they left their homes without anything. Small children that had left their homes without fully dressing.

“The sound of screaming, children crying, heavy black clouds with rockets and the smell of the phosphorus covers the place, with the sound of the F16 jets and Israeli tanks.”

The Israeli military were using all types of weapons to destroy the neighbourhood and terrorise its residents.

"We started calling to the people and asking them what is wrong and where are they coming from? They told us the Israeli forces had entered Shujaiya and Al Shaaf," Qwider said.

She described to me the look of disappointment on everyone's faces as they yet again faced displacement. Telling me, she began to question whether she too should prepare an evacuation bag. "If I did, where would we go if they came upon us?"

Before Israeli forces began their sudden ground invasion with tanks in not just Shujaiya, but also Al Zaytoun, Al Turkman, and Al Tuffah, they intensively bombarded these residential neighbourhoods with artillery fire in conjunction with air strikes by military aircraft, targeting a large number of homes.

Then they pursued the refugees from the bombing and those fleeing to the Tunisian cemetery east of Shuja'iyya to take cover from the bullets of the drones, causing dozens of them to die or be injured, though numbers cannot yet be confirmed because of ongoing attacks.

The Palestinian Civil Defense crews in Gaza were unable to arrive to help the wounded, or to locate victims or recover their bodies from under the rubble of houses, because of the intense bombing, lack of equipment, and running out of fuel.

Another friend told me that Palestinian citizens are being arrested in the north. He has witnessed them being arrested without any charge. People are being arrested or killed.

This might all be related to the planned assault on Lebanon, but one thing is clear: the war in Gaza is still brutally deadly.

High prices

North, south or central, the financial situation for normal people in Gaza is terrible. They only have a small amount of money, if that.

There are no vegetables, and a kilo of sugar is being sold for $100. There is no flour. But salt is being sold for $120 per kilo. The small cans of food, like tuna or beans are left over from Gaza's empty shops or from the few aid trucks that once got in, they have already expired. The people have nothing to eat.

One friend who is 25 years old told me that he managed to find some dried zaatar, and he's eating just that to survive.

What's more, if there is food, there is no gas to cook it. Some people are using wood like people did in the ancient times.

But still, we can't give up. Our grandparents and great grandparents didn't give up, so why should we? We have a duty to not give up and to complete our future and continue defending our land.

Burnt in hospital raid

Not counting this latest war, I have lived through five wars since I was a child in Gaza. Before October my father worked as a healthcare worker, and my mother was a manager of a mental health organisation.

My maternal grandmother, who was 94 years old, older than Israel itself, refused to go to the hospital during this war. She had lived through the Nakba and wanted to stay home, but she was sick, she had schizophrenia and needed medicine.

When the Israeli army invaded al-Shifa Hospital in March, my grandmother and my uncle were at home. The army surrounded their house near the hospital. The Israelis ordered the women to go to the south and arrested and detained the men.

When they asked for my grandmother to be evacuated from the house, the Israeli army refused, and after a few days it burned the house with my grandmother still inside lying on her bed. We only found out weeks later in April when my uncle returned to her and found her charred body in the rubble of her home. Israel killed her.

None of us wanted to leave our home. And of course we don't want to leave our land. My father told me that the only way we will survive this is to either evacuate outside of Gaza, or evacuate to our God.