Israel Gives Evacuation Orders Before a Bombing. Many Gazan Families Can’t Afford to Leave.

Displaced Palestinians carrying their belongings flee northern Gaza toward the south via Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City on Sept Photo Abood Abu Salama Middle East Images AFP via Getty Images In Gaza new beginnings never come without a price Displacement by Israeli bombing and ground invasion forces families to leave behind entire lives a familiar corner of home the smell of morning coffee a notebook holding stories of interrupted lives These losses are emotional ripping away the daily artifacts that help remind people who they are They are also financial The cost of Nozoh or displacement often exceeds what families can afford Basic necessities become out of reach or the cost of leaving itself is too high When the Israeli military attacks residential areas in Gaza the cabinet s press operation highlights evacuation orders that it has issued in the places to be bombed Western mainstream media outlets repeat these contends perpetuating the simplistic idea that any civilian residents have had ample opportunity to flee Even if that were perpetually true it would overlook the complications families face during Nozoh and how the financial burden can force them to stay in place waiting for the shelling to start A rough breakdown of minimal expenses for a family relocating from northern Gaza to the south illustrates the scale of the challenge Transportation costs come to around shekels about in U S dollars A basic tent will cost shekels Food to survive the first limited days will be shekels or more Renting an empty plot of land with no facilities will amount to shekels shekels will be needed to set up a primitive bathroom Nails wood or materials to build makeshift shelters will cost shekels or more Altogether even the lowest estimate comes to a total of at least shekels approximately just to cover the initial phase of displacement With Gaza s commercial sector destroyed by Israel s relentless genocide leaving the majority people with little to no income these costs are out of reach for a large number of Palestinians Before the genocide life was simple announced my friend Sundus a -year-old English translation attendee at the Islamic University of Gaza She recalled her family home overlooking the sea in the Shati neighborhood of Northern Gaza We didn t need to go out because our house had the most of beautiful sea view anyone could dream of Sundus commented My sisters and I would sit on the lower balcony watching the waves Hani and Aboud my brother s children would join us to play filling the day with life Amid a rain of Israeli bombs in early November Hani and Aboud were trapped under the rubble after a round of shelling At and years old her brother s children were killed by Israeli missiles Related Trauma and Terror in the North of Gaza Sundus s family left for Al-Shifa on November We hardly had anything she reported me just a small mat and it rained on our tent On November we heard Israeli forces were approaching Al-Shifa We took what we could and went south We walked kilometers to Khan Younis then moved to Rafah living in tents all winter Even after the ceasefire returning home didn t bring comfort Sundus and her family returned to Shati earlier this year Everything had been destroyed Sundus declared On September our home was bombed again We cleaned it organized it and stayed because we couldn t afford to leave Since October Gaza has faced repeated waves of sudden displacement due to Israeli military evacuation orders On October of that year residents of northern Gaza including Gaza City were informed to move south within hours Similar orders followed in neighborhoods such as Shujaiya Beit Hanoun Deir al-Balah and Zeitoun with specific civilian shelters targeted forcing thousands of families south hastily often with nowhere suitable to stay The Israeli occupation insists that the South is a safe area but this is false The South like any area in Gaza is subjected to daily shelling and destruction Plenty of Gazans fled there hoping to find safety to discover it offers no refuge Open spaces fill expeditiously with incoming families streets are crowded with tents and essential materials rapidly run out Residents passage long distances seeking safety yet protection is never guaranteed The dangers are immediate and severe Early on Wednesday I was trying to sleep having trouble because of the constant sound of Zenana or drones and helicopters At a m explosions hit the residential Al-Ain Jalout Tower The whole area shook highlighting once again that the South is not safe Related In Gaza Famine Is the Weapon and So Is Aid In new months major attacks have targeted southern Gaza including airstrikes on humanitarian teams and hospitals as well as repeated strikes on displacement camps making the places people have fled to as dangerous as the places they left It pains us to leave and we did so only under coercion exhausted and unwilling mentioned the journalist Waad AboZaher God bears witness to our patience and perseverance Life under displacement means long queues for bread and water laundry piled high on weary shoulders and children falling asleep exhausted not from play but from running to survive Overcrowded tents with thin walls let in cold and fear while grief is held in and tears swallowed beneath thin blankets Survival requires constant adaptation sharing tight spaces with strangers displaying cheer while urgent inside caring for children with exhausted hands and navigating basic necessities like water food and safety Who would believe that a ruined patch of land could make people weep as they leave If my grandchildren ask me about Gaza I will tell them its people endured stayed on their land loved their country despite everything and those who left did so reluctantly declared Abdullah Shershara a lawyer in Gaza City They tried to stay until the last moment when hope failed they tried again When both stranger and kin abandoned them they left under compulsion not choice Who would believe that a ruined patch of land could make people weep as they leave Who would think a demolished building is embraced before the final departure For those who cannot afford the costs of relocation the only choice is to face danger and bombardment while staying in place Nozoh is a slow-moving death weighing heavily on bodies minds and hearts alike For AboZaher a silence follows displacement We feel an overwhelming desire to cry she mentioned but no one can Read our complete coverage Israel s War on Gaza My friends and their families are all in the north I speak with them daily trying to keep up with their situations The shelling never stops Israeli occupation attacks people during movement during displacement and even after they flee to supposedly safer areas Multiple of my friends and their families have no internet at all I think about them constantly my heart heavy with worry and I pray for them without stopping Uncertainty fear and helplessness make survival feel fragile Every message is a lifeline every silence a source of anxiety At a m my friend Sundus sent me a devastating WhatsApp message Good morning my sister Taqwa they hit our house My brother and his wife were killed The occupation watches and controls us Yet I feel it is my duty as a friend to document this life to tell the world we are here We are not numbers We have dreams ambitions beyond all limits but the occupation insists on killing those dreams That is why I am writing this To record my friends stories on the page In Arabic we often say We are the dead who walk with living bodies Now I ask Why are we dying while we are still alive The post Israel Gives Evacuation Orders Before a Bombing A multitude of Gazan Families Can t Afford to Leave appeared first on The Intercept