What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
well duh its because hamas has to behead all the kids first!!
seriously though, i have no idea. i would think the kids would have been released first, but i am so disengaged from this entire situation that i can't think of a plausible reason they would keep the kids. at least some people are being released.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
well duh its because hamas has to behead all the kids first!!
seriously though, i have no idea. i would think the kids would have been released first, but i am so disengaged from this entire situation that i can't think of a plausible reason they would keep the kids. at least some people are being released.
Nice joke…Wait till you see the footage of the Hamas terrorists beheading Kids and the elderly on Oct 7th. You may regret joking about any of this, but….
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
Maybe just maybe Hamas is a piece of shit Terrorist organizations full of fucktards believe some bullshit religion. And maybe religious nut fucktards wanna keep the kids as leverage and they want to kill them.
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
well duh its because hamas has to behead all the kids first!!
seriously though, i have no idea. i would think the kids would have been released first, but i am so disengaged from this entire situation that i can't think of a plausible reason they would keep the kids. at least some people are being released.
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
well duh its because hamas has to behead all the kids first!!
seriously though, i have no idea. i would think the kids would have been released first, but i am so disengaged from this entire situation that i can't think of a plausible reason they would keep the kids. at least some people are being released.
Nice joke…Wait till you see the footage of the Hamas terrorists beheading Kids and the elderly on Oct 7th. You may regret joking about any of this, but….
there is no footage of hamas beheading children. the reports of this are unconfirmed, and in some cases retracted.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
Maybe just maybe Hamas is a piece of shit Terrorist organizations full of fucktards believe some bullshit religion. And maybe religious nut fucktards wanna keep the kids as leverage and they want to kill them.
Well thanks for stating the obvious! Yes Hamas needs to be wiped off the earth as should any terrorist organizations harming civilians! I’m just wondering if any negotiations that have happened would they not state that Israel would want kids released 1st
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
Maybe just maybe Hamas is a piece of shit Terrorist organizations full of fucktards believe some bullshit religion. And maybe religious nut fucktards wanna keep the kids as leverage and they want to kill them.
Well thanks for stating the obvious! Yes Hamas needs to be wiped off the earth as should any terrorist organizations harming civilians! I’m just wondering if any negotiations that have happened would they not state that Israel would want kids released 1st
Pretty sure saying Israel would want kids first is stating the obvious
I guess Hamas likely thinks that kidnapped kids make better human shields.
What’s really perplexing at least to me why aren’t they releasing the kids 1st so far they’ve released 4 adults am I wrong?
Maybe just maybe Hamas is a piece of shit Terrorist organizations full of fucktards believe some bullshit religion. And maybe religious nut fucktards wanna keep the kids as leverage and they want to kill them.
Well thanks for stating the obvious! Yes Hamas needs to be wiped off the earth as should any terrorist organizations harming civilians! I’m just wondering if any negotiations that have happened would they not state that Israel would want kids released 1st
Pretty sure saying Israel would want kids first is stating the obvious
I guess Hamas likely thinks that kidnapped kids make better human shields.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
More like war on Terrorism…get your facts right rat…
Oh boy get your facts straight not all Muslims are terrorist! Damn
I don't think she made that claim. They bombed a mosque that they claim "which was being used by both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to prepare an Imminent Terrorist Attack." If true, that's a completely justified attack. If not, lets see why its not before we claim its a war against Islam.
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Because Hamas of course didn’t follow the civilians to hide with them and under them.
Keep it up, you must really want president trump back next year.
Keep what up? My criticism of Bibi and his right wing, authoritarian government?
Whats the price that the Palestinians have to pay for Hamas’s disgusting terrorist act? 2 to 1? 3 to 1? 5 to 1? 10 to 1? 20 to 1? Or total elimination of Palestine, as it is, and its people? I don’t expect an answer.
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Because Hamas of course didn’t follow the civilians to hide with them and under them.
Keep it up, you must really want president trump back next year.
is that the best ya got? threatening a return of president trump? lol.
I wouldn’t laugh, he’s got yer electoral votes no problem. You really think Biden can take the swing states with liberals running around supporting the most extreme of Arab people? So extreme Egypt and Jordan don’t want their refugees? Keep laughing.
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Because Hamas of course didn’t follow the civilians to hide with them and under them.
Keep it up, you must really want president trump back next year.
is that the best ya got? threatening a return of president trump? lol.
I wouldn’t laugh, he’s got yer electoral votes no problem. You really think Biden can take the swing states with liberals running around supporting the most extreme of Arab people? So extreme Egypt and Jordan don’t want their refugees? Keep laughing.
Hahaha electing Donald Trump because liberals have compassion for the plight of the Palestinian people. Only a real fucktard would do that. Most indies probably don't even care about Israel/Palestine any more than any other pointlessly violent conflict going on in the world. Certainly not enough to decide to vote for Donald Trump even though Biden has been supporting almost every atrocity Israel has been committing and only disparaging the hamas atrocities. You aren't even making a point. Pretty clear that you are letting your emotions get in your way here.
One simple inescapable truth the one way the devastating horror pictured above doesn’t happen. That’s if all Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace Oct 7.
Did you also support the 9/11 terrorists? I was on Manhattan island 8.46am on 9/11. Please don’t lecture me that Oct 7th wasn’t cold blooded terrorism targeting women, children and the elderly.
One simple inescapable truth the one way the devastating horror pictured above doesn’t happen. That’s if all Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace Oct 7.
Did you also support the 9/11 terrorists? I was on Manhattan island 8.46am on 9/11. Please don’t lecture me that Oct 7th wasn’t cold blooded terrorism targeting women, children and the elderly.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
One simple inescapable truth the one way the devastating horror pictured above doesn’t happen. That’s if all Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace Oct 7.
Did you also support the 9/11 terrorists? I was on Manhattan island 8.46am on 9/11. Please don’t lecture me that Oct 7th wasn’t cold blooded terrorism targeting women, children and the elderly.
2.2 million did that?
No, it was the 3,195 children thus far with more to be held accountable.
One simple inescapable truth the one way the devastating horror pictured above doesn’t happen. That’s if all Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace Oct 7.
Did you also support the 9/11 terrorists? I was on Manhattan island 8.46am on 9/11. Please don’t lecture me that Oct 7th wasn’t cold blooded terrorism targeting women, children and the elderly.
I protested both of our revenge follies. Yeah 9/11 was bad but Iraq and Afghanistan didn't deserve what they got just like Palestine doesn't deserve what they are getting because of Hamas. Your logic says it would be OK to bomb all of America in order to get rid of mass shooting. Crazy talk.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
They’re not supposed to know. This is a deliberate tactic to cover up and prevent the mass atrocities against non-combatant Palestinians from being broadcast in real time. Bibi and his apartheid state have unleashed the Zionist holocaust. Just wait.
Fearing airstrikes and crowded shelters, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders
By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA
Today
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
Because Hamas of course didn’t follow the civilians to hide with them and under them.
Keep it up, you must really want president trump back next year.
is that the best ya got? threatening a return of president trump? lol.
I wouldn’t laugh, he’s got yer electoral votes no problem. You really think Biden can take the swing states with liberals running around supporting the most extreme of Arab people? So extreme Egypt and Jordan don’t want their refugees? Keep laughing.
news flash. trump will never be president again. wake up.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
One simple inescapable truth the one way the devastating horror pictured above doesn’t happen. That’s if all Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace Oct 7.
Did you also support the 9/11 terrorists? I was on Manhattan island 8.46am on 9/11. Please don’t lecture me that Oct 7th wasn’t cold blooded terrorism targeting women, children and the elderly.
nobody here is saying what hamas did is NOT terrorism. stop putting words in everyone's mouths. what you are doing is blaming all palestinians for hamas' actions, and justifying israel's overwhelming response targeting civilians. this is the same thing the US did with afghanistan and then pivoting to iraq. 19 people carried out 9/11 and because of that we killed nearly 1 million iraqis. did you support that too?
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Comments
seriously though, i have no idea. i would think the kids would have been released first, but i am so disengaged from this entire situation that i can't think of a plausible reason they would keep the kids. at least some people are being released.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I guess Hamas likely thinks that kidnapped kids make better human shields.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.
The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.
Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.
Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israeli troops conduct brief raid in Gaza to 'prepare' for an expected full-scale incursion
Palestinian foreign minister promises cooperation with international courts on visit to The Hague
Live updates | Israeli troops briefly enter Gaza as wider ground incursion looms
Turkey's central bank opts for another interest rate hike in efforts to curb inflation
Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. “It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza,” he said.
The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.
Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.
Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.
Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesn't target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.
International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.
“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.
Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.
More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.
In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.
"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.
He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.
The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.
This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.
About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.
Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned.
Ekhlas Ahmed, 24 and eight-months pregnant, was among them.
A week ago, she fled Gaza City after repeated Israeli warnings to move south. She returned after the home she was sheltering in along with 14 other family members in the south was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was a residential building and they bombed it,” she said.
Ahmed, who has a 4-year-old son, is hoping for a ceasefire.
“I am very frightened. All of us are frightened,” she said.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffrey in Cairo contributed to this report.
___
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Keep it up, you must really want president trump back next year.
Whats the price that the Palestinians have to pay for Hamas’s disgusting terrorist act? 2 to 1? 3 to 1? 5 to 1? 10 to 1? 20 to 1? Or total elimination of Palestine, as it is, and its people? I don’t expect an answer.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
2.2 million did that?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The world is watching.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."