GAZA: After weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.
Yasmeen Al-Dardasi said they passed injured people who could not help her and her family as they left a district in the southern city of Khan Younis to the Correctional and Rehabilitation Center.
They spent a day under the tree before moving to the old prison, which is housed in a prayer room. It provides protection from the rising sun but not much else.
Al-Dardasi's wife has a damaged kidney and only one lung but no mattress or blanket.
“We don't live here either,” said Al-Dardasi, who, like many Palestinians, fears being uprooted again.
Israel says it has to protect civilians.
Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced repeatedly, say nowhere is safe from Israeli bombardment, which has left much of Gaza in ruins.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 90 Palestinians in the designated humanitarian area of the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the Ministry of Health said. territory, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
On Thursday, the Gaza Ministry of Health said that 14 people were killed in an Israeli military strike in the eastern part of Khan Younis.
An entire community is trapped in one of the most overpopulated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been rife.
According to the United Nations, nine out of ten people across Gaza are internally displaced.
Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety when the tanks rolled in, she said. The family didn't have time to change places so they put on prayer clothes.
After sleeping outside on the sandy ground, they also found shelter in the prison, among the rubble and the gaping holes in the houses because of the war that took place there. The prisoners had been released long before the Israeli attack.
“We didn't bring anything. We walked here, with the children with us,” he said, adding that many women have five or six children and it is difficult to find water.
He held his niece, who was born during the war, which killed his father and brother.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and ground attacks since October 7, according to Palestinian health officials.
Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived in prison after being transferred six times.
If Egyptian, US and Qatari negotiators fail to broker a ceasefire they have long said is close, he and other Palestinians may strike again.
“Where should we go? All the places we go to are dangerous,” he said.
