As people in Gaza flee their homes, one NGO worker says he's staying put
220,000 people have been displaced inside Gaza amid retaliatory bombardment, says United Nations
Every five or six minutes, Amjad Shawa hears the airstrikes raining down north of his Gaza City home. Sometimes, the light flashes in his windows like lightning.
But Shawa, a co-ordinator with the Palestinian NGO Network, says that despite evacuation orders, he's not going anywhere. He has roots in his home. And, he says, there's nowhere safe to go. Shelters are at capacity, targets keep moving, and the Rafah Crossing into Egypt — the main exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel — has been closed since Tuesday.
Hundreds of people in the narrow strip of densely populated land are trying to stay out of the line of fire as Israel pounds the city with airstrikes. The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency says about 220,000 people have been displaced inside Gaza.
The bombardment, Israel says, is retaliation against Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, after it launched an unexpected and deadly attack on several Israeli sites Saturday, snatching dozens of hostages in the process.
More than 2,200 people have been killed in the conflict since Saturday — about 1,200 in Israel, and 1,055 in Gaza, according to authorities on each side.
Hamas and other militant groups are threatening to kill hostages if Israel strikes Palestinian civilians without warning. Israel has been ordering evacuations of civilians ahead of its strikes, but residents say they're just running from one place to another.
Israel has also ordered an all-out siege of Gaza, cutting 2.3 million people off from food, water and medical supplies. Officials say a ground offensive is coming. Human rights groups are calling for a safe humanitarian corridor to deliver aid to Gazans.
Shawa lives in Gaza with his wife, 74-year-old mother, 14-year-old son, and two daughters aged 20 and 22. He spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal on Tuesday. Here is part of their conversation.
What kind of conversations do you have when all of this is going on around you?
When the bombardments happen, you can't imagine what's going on in my home.
Yesterday, when we were asked to evacuate our home ... we had a meeting to discuss what we can do. The neighbours are already evacuating ... and I have a mother on the first floor.
She's seen a lot. How is she reacting to this latest violence?
What's going on is crazy, is crazy discussion. There's such a bombardment. And closing the borders, preventing entry of basic needs, supplies, to cut electricity, to cut water, to cut medical food supplies to Gaza — this has never happened in any context all over the world.
Why did you decide to stay?
I decided to stay since there is no safe place outside.
How many people left?
So many people left. And today a number of them came back because they realized that staying at home is the best choice.
Israel says [this is] happening because it has to retaliate for what Hamas has done and is still doing — you know, holding hostages.
Whatever they're saying, to kill about 900 people? About 125 children? To destroy about 6,000 housing units? No one can understand this kind of thing. [If this were to] happen in another context, I cannot imagine that action from the world [would] be the same.
Can you imagine a time of peace, given everything that's happened?
I will never, ever give up hope. And I have to work on this, and I'm working for this … [for] the new generation that [is] growing up in such conditions.
What do your daughters say to you? They've grown up with all of this, as you've said.
It's a very good and complicated question, and a very difficult one.
[They ask]: "Why you are staying here? You have to leave."
And I have, sometimes, to show [them]: "No, we are rooted here, and this is the best place to stay, and we have a future." Although I know .. we are living day by day. And every morning we have something difficult to deal with, due to the life conditions.
My children, as others, are thinking to leave.
I spoke earlier with Yossi Beilin, a former cabinet minister in Israel. He was a key negotiator during the Oslo peace talks ... and he said he's still hopeful, like you are. But he said that peace cannot come as long as the current Israeli government and Hamas … are in charge on their respective sides. How much support is there right now, from what you see, for Hamas in Gaza?
Hamas was elected to be part of the parliament and to run the government. And the first seconds when Hamas got the votes, there were sanctions on the Palestinians.
The sanctions imposed really isolated Hamas. And this isolation creates bad things for us and for others.
The problem is not only this Israeli right-wing government. It's … years of ignorance by Israel for the Palestinian legitimate rights. What's the policy I'm asking for? To apply the UN resolutions [recognizing "the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty"], the agreed global resolution. This is simple.
Do you think those Palestinians who support Hamas will turn away from Hamas, given what has happened and what Hamas has done?
I think if these UN resolutions internationally would be applied, Hamas and others ... will be on the extreme of [the] Palestinian right.
We have to feel, as Palestinians, that we are part of the world.
In the meantime, it's that daily life and death struggle you're going through. So how are you preparing for the days ahead?
These days, we are living not day by day. We are living hour by hour, minute by minute. We don't know what's going to happen. No, we are not prepared.
With files from Reuters and The Associated Press.
