Hundreds of families were forced to flee eastern districts of Gaza city, Shujaiya, Al Shaaf and Jabalia Camp early on Thursday as Israeli tanks rolled across the “yellow line” demarcating areas of Israeli and Hamas control under a US-brokered ceasefire.
Residents who spoke to The National described their terror as the Israeli military's advance forced them to flee in the middle of the night with little besides the clothes they were wearing
“On Wednesday night, we heard intense gunfire,” said Mazen Al Kurd, 40, a father of seven from Jabalia camp. “Then the vehicles started advancing towards us. We couldn’t carry anything, we just ran, barefoot and terrified.”
After months of living in makeshift shelters, his family had only recently returned to the site of their home, now in ruins. They set up tents beside the rubble, believing the area was safe enough to start over after the October 10 ceasefire.
Under the ceasefire, the Israeli military withdrew to the east of the “yellow line”, which it demarcated with painted concrete blocks.
Mr Al Kurd said his family walked five kilometres to spend the night at the home of relatives, then tried to return the next morning to collect their belongings. “But we were shocked to find that the yellow concrete blocks had been moved closer,” Mr Al Kurd said. “The army had expanded its control zone, taking over the areas near the yellow line.”
The incursion came after the Israeli military killed at least 27 people in air strikes on the Gaza city suburbs of Zeitoun and Shujaiya and on Khan Younis in the south on Wednesday. It said the attacks were a response to militants opening fire on its troops in Khan Younis.
On Friday, the military said it killed five militants in an air strike after they were spotted emerging from a tunnel in the southern Rafah area, which lies within Israeli-controlled territory behind the yellow line. Hamas is seeking safe passage for scores of fighters trapped on the Israeli side of the line after the ceasefire. Israel refuses and insists that they should surrender.
Mr Al Kurd said his family was one of dozens in the area who were displaced once again, stripped of shelter, tents and the few supplies they had managed to gather.
“We’ve begun a new journey of suffering,” he said. “No homes, no tents, no life.”
For Munzir Al Sahhar, from Al Shaaf neighbourhood in the east of Gaza city, the night was equally traumatic.
“We had no choice but to flee. We left in terrible conditions – no clothes, no blankets, nothing. We saw the tanks with our own eyes,” he said.
“The hardest part was moving my elderly mother. She can’t walk, so my siblings and I carried her for more than a kilometre while bullets rained down on us from drones.”
Gaza resident
Mr Al Sahhar had only returned home two weeks earlier, after months of displacement in the south. “Now we’re displaced again, and we don’t know where to go. There’s nowhere left,” he said.
“The yellow line moved about 300 metres closer to us after the Israeli army raised the concrete blocks,” he said, extending its control as far as west as the Al Shaaf Cemetery in Shujaiya.
Mohammed Mushtaha, 37, from Shujaiya, said the first sign of trouble was the sound of heavy gunfire.
“We could hear the tanks getting closer. We went to sleep terrified − our house is less than 300 metres from the yellow line.”
He, too, had only recently returned with his family to their destroyed home, believing the area was calm. “We thought we could rebuild our lives there,” he said. “But at dawn, we realised the army had advanced again. The yellow barriers were suddenly beside our houses.”
Mr Mushtaha, his wife, three children and elderly parents fled under a barrage of gunfire from Israeli quadcopters.
“The children were crying, the old couldn’t walk,” he said. “It was a night of hell. We’ll never forget it.”
