‘Gaza is dying’: Strip on streets as fear grips residents over Israel’s new war

Fear grips the residents of Gaza City as Israel plans to expand its operation in one of the largest cities of the coastal enclave. Residents in the city are packing essentials and heading to refugee camps as they fear the Israeli offensive, which might begin soon.

On Thursday, dozens gathered amidst the rubble of damaged buildings to conduct a small but defiant protest in the city, refusing to leave their homes ahead of Israel’s massive assault. During the protests, some even urged the US President Donald Trump to intervene and prevent the Israeli military from barging into the city.

The small group of demonstrators waved the Palestinian flags and carried signs reading, “Stop the genocide”, and “Gaza is dying.” “We send a final call to the entire world: stop the war, no to displacement,” a Palestinian man told CNN.

“And we say to the American President Donald Trump. … If you care about the (Nobel) Peace Prize, you must stop all wars in the world, starting with the war in the Gaza Strip, which has claimed thousands of lives of our Palestinian people over the past two years,” he said in a microphone to a gathering.

Netanyahu remains adamant

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would approve a military plan to take control of Gaza City. The prime minister had ordered the initial plan’s timeline to be shortened the day before.

“We are at the stage of decision,” Netanyahu said in a video address. “Today I came to the Gaza Division to approve the plans that the (Israel Defence Forces) presented to me and the minister of defence for taking control of Gaza City and defeating Hamas.” Apart from this, the Israeli premier noted that he has issued instructions to “begin immediate negotiations” to release the remaining hostages in Gaza and “end the war under conditions acceptable to Israel.”

It is pertinent to note that the takeover and occupation of the largest city in northern Gaza, which Netanyahu said is one of the last Hamas strongholds, will require the military to bring in 60,000 more reserve troops and extend the service of another 20,000. This is in addition to those who are already called up. This begs the question of whether Israel itself is ready for an operation of this scale.

Not only this, the plan has also sparked growing condemnation both internationally and domestically over fears that the already spiralling humanitarian and hunger crisis in Gaza will worsen. Within Israel, people are expressing worries that conducting such an operation would endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Fear among Gazans

Mohammed Hamad, a protester who has already been displaced multiple times, is now refusing to leave Gaza City. “If we leave Gaza, we will not return to it again,” he told CNN. “We tell the world no to displacement. We tell the world that we should not leave the city of Gaza because if we leave, it means the final nail in our existence in Gaza.”

Zakaria Bakr, a displaced Palestinian residing in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, also told CNN that he believes forced displacement would be more rampant. “They will commit massacres, bomb houses over the heads of their owners to send messages of terror and intimidation to force people to leave,” Bakr told CNN, adding that “at the same time, they will besiege the city of Gaza and prevent food from entering.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli source told the American news outlet that the military would give Palestinians approximately two months to evacuate the heavily populated area before the assault begins, setting a deadline of October 7, the two-year mark of the war. Hence, the fate of the Palestinians still hangs in the balance.