'We will not leave Gaza City': Palestinians vow to resist, stay put

Al Mayadeen

a day ago

After 22 months of war, approximately 1 million Palestinians, already displaced, living in tents or ruins, and suffering from hunger and lack of medical care, face another crisis as "Israel's" security cabinet plans to seize control of Gaza City, forcing them to flee southward toward an uncertain future.
Umm Ibrahim Banat, a 55-year-old mother displaced four times from northern Gaza, expressed her fear and anxiety to The Guardian after hearing about the evacuation order for Gaza City, "Where will we go with the children and the elderly? I swear we are exhausted from displacement, starvation, and being driven from one place to another."
'Now,' she said, 'we are the walking dead.'
Following a 10-hour overnight meeting on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that his security cabinet had approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, further escalating "Israel's" war on Gaza, which has already claimed the lives of at least 61,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians.
"Israel's" Channel 12 reported that the plan, involving the deployment of ground troops into the territory, could displace tens of thousands of people, worsen the already strained aid delivery efforts, and push around 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City and surrounding areas toward evacuation zones in the southern part of the strip.
Heartbroken after losing her daughter's entire family, Banat denounced Gaza's unbearable conditions, the disease-ridden tent camps, undrinkable water, collapsed hospitals, and endless suffering, demanding to know what more could be taken from a people who've lost everything.
Abu Nasser Mushtaha, a 35-year-old father of four from Gaza's Rimal neighborhood, expressed his fear for his family's safety, stating, "If we are ordered to evacuate, I will leave everything and go, fearing for my family and children. The cost of staying would be too high. I have already lost enough; my mother was killed at the beginning of the war when the Israeli occupation bombed a neighbouring house."
Mushtaha revealed he had begun financial preparations to cut costs while planning to take only essential belongings, grimly predicting that this impending crisis would undoubtedly mark the final destruction of Gaza's population.
With over 90% of Palestinians already displaced at least once during the war and nearly 10% suffering injuries from Israeli attacks, the population now faces even greater suffering as the decimated healthcare system collapses further and "Israel" blocks most aid agencies like the UN from delivering critical assistance.
Hossam al-Saqa, a 46-year-old father of two from Gaza City, told The Guardian he couldn't comprehend how authorities expected to relocate Gaza's entire population to the already overwhelmed south, declaring his family's determination to remain on their land despite the mortal dangers, vowing he would stay even at gunpoint.
'I see Netanyahu's and Israel's propaganda as nothing more than media fireworks meant to intimidate and spread fear among the people,' al-Saqa said, adding, 'This will not scare us, for God is with us, and He is stronger than everyone.'
Al-Saqa, echoing sentiments widespread across Gaza City, interpreted the occupation plan as a coercive tactic to force Hamas into surrender following the collapse of last month's US, Egyptian, and Qatari-mediated negotiations.
Ibrahim Abu al-Husni, a 47-year-old man who lost his 23-year-old son in the war, defiantly declared his attachment to his homeland, stating, "This is our land where we grew up since childhood, and we will not give it up easily. I will not leave this city."
'I will live here, and I will die here," he assertively stated.