There are neighborhoods in Gaza where Israel strikes as the war escalates
The Israel-Gaza War: Israel’s First Associated Attack on the “Evil” Israeli Enclave and the Status of the Palestinians
Israel carried out heavy bombardments across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as its military repeatedly hit the enclave following last weekend’s deadly incursion by Hamas militants in Israel.
Eyewitnesses described widespread destruction of neighborhoods in Gaza City from the Israeli strikes. All of the Gaza Strip’s borders are closed, leaving Palestinian civilians with nowhere to escape and around a tenth of Gaza’s population of about 2.3 million people internally displaced seeking shelter. The Gaza Strip has been under a blockade for 16 years.
The U.S. World Food Program has called for the creation of emergency humanitarian corridors.
The death toll continued to climb in the Israel-Gaza war. Israeli media said at least 1,200 Israelis have been killed from the Hamas attacks. The Palestinian officials say that more than a thousand Palestinians were killed in Gaza.
The first shipment of weapons arrived in Israel as the Secretary of State travels to Israel to deliver a message of support.
President Joe Biden promised to make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of itself after he referred to Hamas’ attack on Israel as “evil” on Tuesday.
Biden said that 14 Americans had been killed in Israel and more than 20 were missing. In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there are some Americans among dozens of those held hostage by Hamas but called it “a very small number of Americans that we know of.”
“There’s also a larger number of Americans that are just unaccounted for. Now, some of them could turn up to be in the hostage pool. We don’t know. So, we’re, we’re trying to get as much information as we can,” Kirby said.
Hamas blew up Gaza in the beginning of the Yom Kippur War and killed thousands of Israelis, Palestinians, and U.S. citizens
The bloodshed began on the Jewish Simchat Torah holiday, and a day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War, when Israel came under attack by Arab countries.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which took control of Gaza in 2007, launched a massive surprise attack along Israel’s southern border on Saturday. Militants infiltrated Israel’s border using paragliders, motorbikes, and boats.
Without electricity, internet or connection to the outside world is not possible. Wastewater is flowing into Gaza’s streets and needs electricity to treat it. The water supply has been cut. I passed a bunch of UN schools that had been turned into shelters, so crammed with people, that some families spilled out into the yards. Dread grows inside me, as I know the worst is yet to come.
Over 2,300 Israelis and Palestinians have been killed so far, the majority of them civilians. I am sad about the deaths of civilians. I know that the pain of an Israeli parent is no different from the anguish of a mother or father in Gaza. I was not surprised that we were at this point of no return.
Many fighters who broke the walls are a few years older than Ali and many of them were born during the second intifada. Their entire experience has been Israeli military occupation, siege and devastating military assault upon assault in an enclave of 140 square miles, with unemployment and poverty rates of approximately 50 percent. This is the history, and these are the conditions that have shaped so many in Gaza, not a justification. Israel helped create these fighters by starving them of hope, dignity and a future.
About 400 to 600 U.S. citizens are in Gaza and about 100 have contacted the embassy for help, according to a senior U.S. official.
The 30-year-old grew up in Gaza, but hadn’t been back since moving to the U.S. seven years ago. Abuzayda and her husband had been talking about when to visit for a while.
“We changed our tickets like three to four times … and then we decided to come to Gaza at this time,” she said. “And our short vacation just turned into a nightmare.”
Abuzayda, her husband Abood and their one-and-a-half year old son Yousef traveled from Massachusetts for what was supposed to be a two-week trip. They don’t know when they’ll be able to return to their homes.
Abuzayda told Morning Edition’s Leila Fadel that she called the U.S. embassy for help multiple times a day starting immediately after the attack on Saturday. But they told her repeatedly that they didn’t have any updates. To no avail, she tried the embassy in Cairo.
She said that they told them that they were not safe, that we were running out of milk, and that they weren’t doing anything. “And in the meantime they keep posting stuff about the U.S. citizens in Israel. Every five minutes they keep reminding the people in Israel to get out of Israel.”
And there are many others struggling to leave, since major U.S. airlines have halted flights in and out of the country. The total number is unknown, but New York Rep. Mike Lawler said his district alone has “hundreds of constituents in Israel trying to get home.”
The U.S. increased the travel advisory for Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday to level three, or “reconsider travel.” “Do not travel” remains the level four advisory for Gaza.
Abuzayda’s sister-in-law and three children tried to cross the border but were turned back by the Israeli airstrike.
Trying to keep You inside or out, but I Can’t Attempt to Keep You Safe Inside or Inside: A Case Study of an American Family Trapped in Gaza
She said it’s not safe inside or outside. The markets themselves are running low on supplies. She’s trying to make the most of everything she has left so that she can keep Yousef safe.
The hardest feeling is to hide your fear so that you don’t hurt your son, she said. “Because he doesn’t understand anything, he thinks this is a fireworks. I tell him when I’m crying, “okay mommy, clap this is a fireworks, it’s nothing.” Sometimes he will jump, he will be scared and freaking out if I’m not next to him.”
Source: An overdue reunion became a nightmare for this American family now trapped in Gaza
A Girl in the Desert: I Need a Baby. I’m afraid I won’t have a baby, I can’t give up
She said that she wanted to save them. “Please. I have a one- and-a-half year old boy, I have had six rounds of fertility treatments. We have been trying to call the embassy. Nobody is helping or getting back to us. Please don’t let us go.
