Gaza: In search of safety

16 January 2009

As a result of the Israeli military operation, thousands of people have fled their homes and are now seeking refuge in UN schools in Gaza City. Many are living in dire conditions, in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

Mohammed Ali, Oxfam's Media and Advocacy Researcher in Gaza, met with some of the displaced families. Here is what is he saw and heard. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Oxfam.

Looking for refuge
Gazan schools are no longer full of pupils and their teachers.

This is one of the UN schools in Gaza city (above). Dozens of families having fled their homes with just the clothes on their backs have come here in search of somewhere to live. They have either had their homes destroyed or are in search of a secure place to protect them from Israeli shelling.

The people here have become internally displaced and are mostly dependent on humanitarian aid.

Most of the families here spend their time in the schoolyard. Classrooms have turned into people's new homes. They use the windows to hang their wet clothes.

Women sit with one another expressing their pain and suffering. Men sit beside them, helpless while children run around.

Um Mohammed Al Toum
Um Mohammed Al Toum is 46 years old; she fled her home with her 12 children and came to this UN school.

"We are so scared... our home was hit while I was alone inside. Luckily I was not harmed," she told me.

"We have been here for about ten days, we live with almost nothing; we have lost our home. The situation in the north of Gaza in Beit Lahiya is indescribable. No one can imagine how hard the situation is there... the area was burnt down."

"My children are suffering a lot because they live in constant fear... We left our home to find security but even in the UN school we don't feel secure, as there are explosions all night. The other day three people got killed in this school while they were trying to get blankets to cover themselves."

Abu Sameer Al Toum
Abu Sameer Al Toum is 77 years old; he is the father in law of Um Mohammed.

Seven families live together in this one classroom. There are 41 members, all of whom are the children and grandchildren of Abu Sameer.

"We sleep on the floor. Recently we received mattresses and blankets to cover us during the cold nights. Can you imagine what it is like to sleep on the floor with 41 people? Not only that but we sleep with the sound of Israeli fire and explosions," he explained.

"My message to the world is that we are a poor people, we want peace and dignity not war. I am an old man, and I want to live the rest of my few years left on this earth seeing my grandchildren happy and safe, not living like this.

"No one who a sense of justice can accept the state we are being forced to live in.

"I have witnessed different wars in 48, 67,73,56, and now 2009... the situation we are living in now is the worst. We left our home to come here. Now we are displaced.

"I want the world to look at us, we are civilians, we deserve to live, if not me then my grandchildren do. I don't need anything from this life, I have had enough, but what I am asking for is for these children to have their lives, what have they done to deserve this? We have lived under the Israeli blockade for more than a year, instead of easing our lives, the world is punishing us because we ask for life, this is unfair."

Lack of facilities
This young girl is 15 years old she is cleaning her and her brother's clothes.

"When we want to clean ourselves, we can only clean on our hands; I have not had a shower for more than a week. When we want to go the bathroom, we have to queue for a long time to do so.

"The Israeli army distributed leaflets asking us to evacuate our homes. So my entire family went out wearing white T-shirts to show them that we are civilians... we then walked all the way to Gaza city and stayed here.

"Now we are homeless, we have no place to live, and I don't know why this is happening to us, we want to live in peace and safety like other people in the world do.

"I want the world to look at the conditions we are living in, and them to think deeply about our future."

Hard to sleep at night
This is young boy is five years old, he is unwell. He has just returned from the medical clinic inside the UN school where he is now staying. He is carrying his own medicine.

He feels so scared that he does not leave his mother's side.

"I feel scared and in the night I cover my face with the blanket so I don't see and hear what happens outside."

Medical sources say that more than 200 children have been killed and hundreds of others injured as a result of the Israeli military shelling and air strikes.

Over 50 per cent of the Gazan population is made up of children. Many of them are now suffering from psychological problems as a result of living in a state of fear. Some of them have even been witness to other children being killed.

Many children will be in need of long and extensive rehabilitation programmes.

In search of supplies
In Beach camp, Gaza city, families are carefully going out in the three-hour lull in fighting to find some food and cardboard to burn so that they can cook.

It is increasingly difficult to find food and the food that is available is very expensive.

Water cuts
According to the Coastal Municipality Water Utility more than 65 per cent of the Gazan population only have access to water for two hours, once a week.

Power blackouts and the lack of fuel to pump water has made the lives of more than a million people extremely difficult.

Raeed Abedallah, 31 years old, is a volunteer with one of the local charity organisations in Gaza city.

"Every day we distribute more than seven thousand litres of drinking water.

"Many people have no water inside their homes to drink or to clean with," says Raeed.