“We only own the clothes we wear”: Palestinians fear revenge after Hamas attack

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s (73) announcement after the attacks on his country was unmistakable: “We will turn all the places where Hamas organizes and hides into islands of rubble.”

He called on residents of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has political leadership, to flee: “We will act everywhere and with all our strength.” Not easy for the locals. All border crossings will be closed after the Hamas attack in Israel at the latest. The only exception: the strictly controlled border crossing at Rafah into Egypt.

“Can’t go anywhere”

One person who cannot flee the area is Salim Hussein (55). He told CNN that he and his family had been awake all night fearing airstrikes. His house was hit by an Israeli missile, but he doesn’t know why. They were warned by Israel just before the impact. “We only own the clothes we wear. We can’t go anywhere.”

Hani el-Bawab (75) and his family are also on the streets. Their house collapsed after a neighboring house was hit by an Israeli bomb. “I don’t know what to do,” El-Bawab said. “We Palestinians in Gaza live in panic and fear,” he says. They prepare for a bomb strike at any moment.

El-Bawab’s wish is clear: ‘I just want a house where my children can live. I just want protection.” Despite everything, he has no regrets about Hamas’s attack on Israel: “Every time it is Israel that attacks us. Now it is our fighters who have gone in.”

More than 400 Palestinians were killed, including children

The mood is mixed. On the one hand, fear of retaliation, on the other hand, a celebratory mood about the attack on Israel. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. More than two million people live on 360 square kilometers. That is more than 5,300 inhabitants per square kilometer. For comparison: in Switzerland there are only 215 on average.

Since the attack on Israel alone, the government has destroyed about 800 targets in Gaza, including Hamas’s launch pads. This is reported by the Israeli army. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the attacks killed 560 Palestinians, including 78 children. “The occupiers carried out a massacre in an entire neighborhood by targeting a mosque. Many dead and injured were taken to hospitals.»(jl)

Source: Blick