The Electronic Intifada 31 July 2024
Israel has issued a series of evacuation orders to people in Khan Younis lately. (Abdullah Abu Al-Khair / APA Images)
Khalil had no choice but to take down the tent he had assembled in a school.
The school is located in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. After claiming that the surrounding area was “safe” during an earlier stage of the current genocidal war, Israel recently ordered its evacuation.
As a result, Khalil and 30 members of his extended family had to pack up and leave hastily.
It was the 13th occasion in which the family had been uprooted since the war began.
The family were unsure of where they should go once they had quit the school where they were sheltering. Then a friend alerted them to how there were some empty cells in Asda, a Khan Younis prison.
Asda’s detainees were released at the beginning of the war and it subsequently became a shelter for displaced people.
As soon as they learned there was some space available in the prison, Khalil and his brother rushed there. Other members of the family followed them, using a truck to transport their belongings.
In the prison, they saw countless families either sitting on chairs or on the floor. Some people relaxed in the yard before undertaking chores such as searching for food and water.
Khalil and his family put mattresses on the metal beds inside the cell where they are staying.
“Many people would be afraid of living in a prison,” Khalil said. “I think it is better than being on the street without any shelter.”
“But when will our displacement end?” he added. “It is exhausting.”
“Nowhere else to go”
Mamoun is a father of four children under the age of 12. He was shocked to learn that the family must leave the apartment they were renting in Khan Younis because of an Israeli order.
A relative advised them to head for an amusement park near the city.
Mamoun and his children used to visit the amusement park on holidays. When he arrived there after the evacuation order, it was full of displaced people in tents.
The park is a completely unsuitable place to shelter, the family felt. It lacks running water, healthcare facilities and shops.
“But we have nowhere else to go,” Mamoun said.
The family pitched a tent beside a swing.
His children were distressed. They have memories of visiting the amusement park in happier times.
“They don’t sleep well,” Mamoun said.
“They live in constant fear of being killed or seeing us killed before their eyes. They always tell me that before they sleep.”
Another man, Mahmoud, and his family had been living in a tent on the rubble of their Khan Younis home. Mahmoud learned recently from a Facebook post that Israel had ordered their evacuation.
Before they were able to leave, Israel had begun attacking the surrounding area from both the air and the ground.
Like many others, Mahmoud and his family were besieged. They decided to seek shelter elsewhere, even though that meant fleeing under bombardment.
The only place they could find was a cemetery in Khan Younis.
Like other families, Mahmoud pitched a tent next to graves.
“I don’t know how I am going to close my eyes when we are in the same place as the dead,” Mahmoud said. “If I am too scared to sleep, then what is it like for my children?”
Khuloud Rabah Sulaiman is a journalist living in Gaza.
