2023-10-13 08:40:37
Najla Shawa works for the NGO Oxfam in the Gaza Strip. The neighborhood where the organization’s headquarters is located was hit hard by bombings by the Israeli army, which says it has dropped 6,000 bombs and 4,000 tons of explosives on the Palestinian enclave since Saturday October 7, in retaliation. to the Hamas terrorist attack against the Jewish state.
The NGO was forced to interrupt all its humanitarian and development activities with its local partners in this small territory where 2.3 million inhabitants live in seclusion. The testimony of Najla Shawa, whose “Obs” translated, was collected by Oxfam.
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I live in the western part of Gaza City. I live with my family and twelve other people, friends who came to stay with us three days ago because of the destruction in their area. We do not have mains electricity. We only have electricity from our solar panels.
Last night we managed to fall asleep after a few hours of chaos due to the suspected threat of an Israeli bombing on a block close to ours. Someone would have gone to tell the neighbors that the Israelis were going to strike this area. So there was a bit of panic. Fortunately, it wasn’t directly my street, just the one above. But this caused some panic in the evening when we were putting the kids to bed. Fortunately, nothing happened. Then, after an hour, we realized it was a false rumor or something.
There were a few airstrikes during the night. But at 4:30 or 5 a.m., there was a really massive one, which shook the house. It was aimed at the coastal route, and I think there were several at the same time. It wasn’t very close to us. But it was really very big, very violent, very strong. Everyone woke up. Since then, we have all been awake. We couldn’t get back to sleep.
Israel-Gaza: the time of terror
There were several rounds of intermittent bombardment, particularly from Navy ships. [israélienne]. Right now what we’re hearing is maybe drones, and in the background probably shelling from the sea, as far as I can tell.
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This morning [jeudi 12 octobre]there was a massacre in the Al-Shati camp [camp de réfugiés construit en 1948 qui a été visé, selon les journalistes sur place, par des bombardements lundi 9 et jeudi 12 octobre]. Everyone is shocked. The images that were released show that it was a densely populated area and that there were quite a few victims and bodies under the rubble. I haven’t heard a precise count yet. But I do know that the total number of Palestinians killed is around 1,200, with probably 5,000 or more injured.
It is difficult to keep up to date with the figures and their evolution. Everyone I know is displaced, they are either in a school, in a public place, or with a relative [plus de 423 000 Gazaouis ont été contraints de fuir leur domicile depuis le début des bombardements, a indiqué dans la nuit de jeudi à vendredi le Bureau de coordination des affaires humanitaires de l’ONU]. The situation is catastrophic.
The perilous equation of an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip
We are very worried, whether about the attacks themselves or about access to food and water. So far so good, but we don’t know what the days to come have in store for us [après l’annonce lundi de la mise en place d’un « siège total » de l’enclave, Israël a ordonné vendredi l’évacuation sous 24 heures vers le sud de « tous les civils » de la ville de Gaza]. We have enough water for now. We managed to restock from a private seller passing on the street. But with the lack of electricity and the cutoff of water from Israel, the water supply will become very insufficient, not to mention the pipes which have been seriously damaged.
#situation #catastrophic