The situation in the city is very grave. The intensity of the strikes is increasing every day. Missiles can hit anywhere at any time. Even if they hit not your house, but a neighbouring one, shrapnel will fly into your house. Mostly the north and the “centre” (“Rimal”) are bombed. The residential neighbourhood of “Karama” is completely wiped out. In Al-Zahraa, 24 residential houses were destroyed.
Israel claims Hamas was there, but that’s a lie – they weren’t. Hamas fighters have gone into tunnels under the city, Israeli missiles don’t even reach them. Over 90% of the dead are civilians. The figure of 4,385 dead is only those who could be found under the rubble. The real death toll is many times higher. A great many of those killed are children who do not know what Hamas and the IDF are.
The humanitarian situation is also deteriorating. There has been no electricity for about two weeks now. My family uses solar panels so there is internet and at least some electricity. Most people don’t have that. People charge their phones in hospitals where there are diesel generators, but there is less and less diesel for them. Pharmacies are closed, only hospitals have medicines, but they too are running out.
The water in the taps is given for two hours a day – it is dirty, but you have to drink it, there is no other water. There is no food. The big supermarkets closed in the first days of the war, as people swept away everything that was there, and there are no new products. Mostly we eat bread and tinned food. Even animals suffer. I have three kittens in my house, I have to give them very little food, because there is nowhere to get new food.
That the population is supposedly leaving Gaza is an Israeli lie. Most of them are staying in their homes. People do not leave even under threat of death. At the same time, phones are constantly receiving threatening messages from Israeli numbers. There may also be a notification that “your house will be bombed” so that people feel in danger every minute.
We know that Russia opposes the West and does not support Israeli crimes. In Gaza, they love Russia and the Russian people very much. From Arab countries – very good attitude towards Qatar, Algeria, Yemen. Of the non-Arab countries – towards Iran. We believe that Iran and Hezbollah will intervene and will not allow the genocide of Gaza.
But the attitude towards the governments of Egypt, the UAE and Jordan is very bad. Here they are seen as traitors who have cowered under the US and Israel. The last straw was the statement of the Jordanian king about the provision of airports to the American Air Force. And in general, the Jordanian government’s attitude towards the Palestinians has always been bad. If you had a Palestinian passport, the Jordanian security forces treated you like “shit” – they could detain you at the airport, on the street, and search you.
As for a ground operation, I don’t believe Israel will launch one. They last conducted a limited ground operation in 2014, when Hamas didn’t have the kind of weaponry they have today. And even then Israel suffered heavy casualties. Now they will be hundreds of times higher. If they go into Gaza, they will all stay here. People believe Hamas will win. Support for the movement has only grown. Bombing Israel won’t achieve anything.
Translated from Arabic by Nikolay Sevostyanov