UN schools are flooded with displaced Gaza refugees
JABALIYA: Dozens of displaced Gaza families flooded into a UN school yesterday after Israel warned them to leave their homes, struggling to set up camp in a cramped, dirty courtyard.
Hundreds of homeless Gazans were already living there, with this school in the northern town of Jabaliya packed to overflowing.
Rubbish piled up outside the school walls, filling the air with a foul stench, as women used brooms and muddy water to clean up their new accommodation – festering classrooms packed with dirty mattresses and bed clothes.
“The army simply told us: You must leave the area now. Those who don’t are entirely responsible for their own lives,” said Ghassan Abed, who fled his home in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya the night before.
The warning was sent by text message and automated voice calls to hundreds of thousands of people living in the northern areas of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya, as well as to those living in Zeitun and Shejaiya to the south and east of Gaza City.
Similar messages sent to other districts earlier this month sent more than 200 000 people fleeing for safety, UN figures show.
“The messages said to go to Gaza City, but it’s not that simple – we’ve no relatives there and nowhere to stay,” said the 46-year-old who is a Palestinian Authority policeman and father of six.
Abed said some 200 to 300 people from his street alone had simply packed up and left – terrified of getting swept up in violence that has killed more than 1 100 people, mostly civilians, and razed entire neighbourhoods across the tiny coastal territory.
“Almost the whole of Beit Lahiya has come here. There are no rooms left. People are having to live in yards,” said Samer Kilani, from Beit Hanun.
Food supplies are becoming short. Muna Abu Amsha, a mother in her forties, holds up a piece of stale bread.
“We want to eat, but nothing’s fresh,” she said.
Israel’s army has blamed Hamas for civilian deaths, saying its fighters deliberately hide in residential areas, turning them into “human shields”.
UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA says it is sheltering 182 604 displaced Gazans who are staying in 83 of its schools, which sometimes have to be vacated for security reasons.