A UN adviser in Gaza has described as “catastrophic” conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory, which has been pounded by Israeli warplanes since Hamas militants carried out their mass assault on the Jewish state.
Adnan Abu Hasna, media adviser for UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugees agency, said on Thursday that there was no mains electricity and very little water after the enclave’s sole power plant went offline after running out of fuel. Israel has cut all supply of water, electricity, fuel and goods from the packed territory that is home to 2.3mn people.
Abu Hasna said Gazan hospitals had treated 5,000 people injured by the strikes that have followed Saturday’s shock incursion by Hamas militants based in the territory, the worst attack inside Israel since it was founded.
“They’re using generators but this is very dangerous because they can’t operate them 24 hours a day. They also have limited supplies of fuel that will run out soon,” he said.
“Whole districts have been bombed and their residents displaced . . . we’re talking about 500,000 people. There are some 250,000 in UNRWA schools and the rest sheltering in other locations. The situation is catastrophic.”
Authorities in Israel say more than 1,200 Israelis were killed in Saturday’s multipronged assault. Palestinian health authorities say that 1,055 people have been killed by the subsequent Israeli bombardment in Gaza. UNRWA said 12 of its Gaza staff were dead.
Israel Katz, Israel’s energy and infrastructure minister, said on social media that no humanitarian aid would be provided for Gaza until all the Israeli captives seized by Hamas were released. “No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he wrote. “And no one should preach morals to us.”
Gaza residents fear water shortages after Israel cut connections to the territory, and there was little fuel left to power pumps for underground water. Israel has threatened to bomb any trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egypt.
Gazans described the nonstop sound of bombing, streets packed with rubble, collapsed buildings and many residents seeking refuge with relatives or with the UN.
“There is no safe place in Gaza. We’re in constant fear,” said Refaat Alareer, a lecturer at the Islamic University of Gaza. He said his children were constantly awoken by the sound of bombs that would also shake their building, and that the city “smelt of smoke, cement and explosives”.
As with other Gazans, they were hosting fleeing relatives in their now-overcrowded flat. “We try to avoid going out so as not to be exposed to shrapnel or shells. Most roads have also been destroyed including those leading to the main Shifa hospital,” he said.
Najla Shawa, a spokesperson for Oxfam, described how she, her family and the 18 people sheltering in her home had fled the apartment on Monday night after warnings that a neighbouring building was about to be bombed.
“I can’t describe the terror we felt,” she said. “There was screaming, and it was a horrific sight when the building was hit. We took the car and drove away and the street was full of broken glass and rubble.”
Sama Hamouda, a writer, complained that in previous Israeli bombardments residents were given “a humanitarian truce of even one hour a day” without air strikes, so they can go out to buy food. “This time it is very different,” she said. “We fear we are being annihilated.”
Feras, a 31-year-old Gazan, had high hopes for the future in the days before the Hamas assault on Israel, having won a scholarship to study for an executive MBA at the University of Richmond in Virginia — an opportunity that now seems a distant prospect.
“Now all that has run away, everything is destroyed,” he said. Supplies of food, water and electricity are now in short supply and expected to be exhausted in the next few days.
He and his family had been advised by the Red Cross to leave their block in the better-off Al-Rimal district and were staying with family nearby. An Israeli strike had destroyed the local mosque, causing collateral damage to his building.
Al-Rimal was once deemed relatively safe from Israeli reprisals in previous wars, unlike Gaza’s border districts and refugee camps. “People here are known to be from the big Gaza families and not participating in any terrorist work, but now we are being destroyed too,” he said.
As the bombing continued and Israel prepared for what was expected to be a land invasion, Gazans were bracing themselves for more pain.
“It’s already very dangerous and a ground offensive will be even harsher,” said Alareer. “Even if we manage to hide, with the little food we have and with no water, we will die.”
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv