NOWHERE IS SAFE
MISSILES rained down yesterday as scores of trapped foreigners tried to escape the ruins of Gaza.
They feared for their lives as Israel’s bombings continued and tanks blocked the Rafah crossing into Egypt. It was closed in an apparent dispute over evacuating patients.
Just 88 of the 200 British people listed as being in Gaza at the start of the war had left the region yesterday.
The UK Foreign Office said it was pressing for the reopening of the Rafah crossing. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no let-up in the bombardment despite pleas from world leaders including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a humanitarian pause in military action.
Mr Blinken also said a ceasefire would allow Hamas to repeat attacks.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack but said the war should stop. He said: “The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”
It was unsafe to travel even 25 minutes to the border with Egypt from the north of Gaza. In the north, 400,000 Palestinians, surviving on two pieces of bread a day, are at risk at whatever Israel inflicts on them and hospitals are running out of power.
Among the 112 British in Gaza was Dr Ibrahim Assalia and his family.
They are trapped near Al-shifa hospital, where 15 were killed in an air strike on an ambulance on Friday.
They are unwilling to risk any attempt to leave. He said: “I can’t take my family and go there and, God forbid, be shelled or be killed by a tank...i prefer to wait.
“The Foreign Office informed us that our names will be there on the border for seven days.
“If we don’t make it within seven days, the names will be deleted.
“This is a very serious issue. I am 10 minutes away from Gaza city, 25 minutes from the Rafah crossing. But no one was expecting the Israeli tanks to block this main road. That’s the problem.” Dr Assalia said his window was shattered due to shelling 50 metres away, injuring his hand.
He said his daughter’s skin was irritated, due to what he believes to be phosphorous.
Israel Defense Forces were “not aware” of the use of the substance, which is illegal. Dr Assalia also said his wife had run out of medicine to control her epilepsy, and pharmacies do not have any left.
Scientist Mohammed Ghalayini, 44, of Manchester, chose to stay behind with his father, stepmum and two half-brothers but moved south after his mum and two sisters got out.
He hears the F-16 airstrikes overhead and “wonders where they are
going to land”. He said: “This is ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
“As long as there is no justice for them, I cannot see a world where there is security for Israel. I have five days to decide whether to go, I am assessing the situation every day.”
Israel claims Hamas are using civilians as human shields. About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes.
More than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far, including more than 3,900 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Hamas attack of October 7 killed 1,400 Israeli civilians, with more than 240 men, women and children kidnapped. More than 340 Israeli soldiers have died in the conflict.
The death toll in one month will soon pass the 9,700 killed by Russia in 21 months of the war in Ukraine, officials have warned. The UN described conditions in Gaza as “horrific” as fighting escalates and food and water supplies run out.
UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres added his voice to calls for an immediate ceasefire to allow aid in.
He said: “An entire population is traumatised, nowhere is safe.”
Emad Abuaassi managed to escape with his wife Stephanie and their four children.
The family moved from Blackpool to Gaza last year in order to be closer to Mr Abuaassi’s relatives, but were forced to flee their home after Israel launched air strikes.
Royal Liverpool University Hospital consultant surgeon Abdel Hammad, 67, escaped last week and is back in Liverpool. He did not want to tell his family he feared every day he would
be killed by a missile.
Israel said it had opened the humanitarian route for the evacuation of residents to the south of Gaza yesterday.
But an IDF spokesman said Hamas had exploited the humanitarian window and fired mortars and anti-tank missiles at their troops.
He said: “This incident proves Hamas exploits the Gazan population and prevents them from acting in the interest of their own safety.”
As Mr Blinken met leaders on his Middle East tour, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on their border with Lebanon, hitting back
at the militant Hezbollah group, which had targeted at least six Israeli army posts.
Hours earlier Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned they were prepared for “all options” and could “resort to them at any time”.
Hezbollah claimed direct hits had destroyed rockets and technical equipment at the posts.
A Lebanese security official confirmed the report of Burkan rockets being used for the first time.
One Hezbollah fighter was killed along the border as well as 10 civilians, including a Reuters journalist, and several Palestinian fighters.
The Israeli strikes killed many civilians at a UN shelter and hospital in Gaza.