“He is among the population and growing, with nowhere to go.” What Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, refers to is a mountain of waste, 100 thousand tons, among the tent cities of displaced people in the center of Gaza.
A metaphor for the horror of war, which is there and does not go away, looms over the population “adding misery to living conditions”, said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA communications officer, from Deir al-Balah. Waste means diseases that the early summer temperatures only make worse. Making a dent in that mountain, adds UNRWA, is almost impossible: without fuel, blocked at the crossings closed by Israel, the garbage trucks are stopped.
“I DO NOT HAVE doubts that tomorrow it will be even worse – he added – Just rubble, yet people still live there.” The Norwegian Refugee Council gives some numbers after interviewing over a thousand Palestinian families who fled Rafah: 83% do not have constant access to food, 52% to decent shelter, 57% to water.
And then the Israeli army raids that in these weeks are as powerful as those at the beginning of the offensive. Yesterday in Deir al-Balah they hit a house. A ten-year-old boy, Belal Abu Hassanein, told reporters about his agony: “My grandfather started screaming. I found my mother and my brother killed.”
The center is among the most affected areas, as in the first months: «The Israeli army is increasing its attacks – says al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum from Deir al-Balah – Five Palestinians, including a girl, were killed in the raids on two houses, they had received no warnings.” In the Bureji camp, the civil protection headquarters was hit, three paramedics killed. In al-Mawasi, which has become a huge tent city, 11 were killed and 40 injured. In Rafah the tanks moved further west with bulldozers. There would be families trapped in the Shakoush neighborhood.
CONTINUES also the siege of Shujayea, in Gaza City, which has been in the grip of a new land offensive for two days. Seven bodies were recovered yesterday. An operation that the Israeli army yesterday claimed responsibility for based on intelligence information that believes Hamas cells are hiding there. This is confirmed by the al Qassam Brigades who say they are engaged in “tough clashes” with Israeli troops in Shujayea. The group – with other Palestinian movements – is present in almost all of Gaza, never decimated.
Defense Secretary Gallant, who is visiting the United States, spoke out on the subject: according to the Washington Post, he discussed with the White House a post-war plan, an international force in which several Arab countries would participate. Holders of security with the US, in an unspecified future they would cede it to the Palestinian National Authority, an option that Prime Minister Netanyahu has always rejected.
