GAZA - Ahmed Asaleia, a displaced Palestinian man from Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, has succeeded in escaping from Israeli attacks to the Al-Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza City.
"As explosions rang out everywhere around me, I have never imagined that I would survive with my family and stay alive until now," the 45-year-old father of five told Xinhua.
For 11 days in a row, the Israeli army continues its ground operation in Jabalia and surrounding areas. The locals said the Israeli forces had completely isolated the northern region, besieging tens of thousands of families without food, water, or medicine.
"Death was close to us, and we managed to escape miraculously under the bombardment and hail of bullets," Asaleia said.
For Asaleia and other Palestinian families who fled Jabalia, the specter of suffering lingers despite their narrow escape from death, as each day presents a relentless struggle to secure food, water, and safety from the looming threat of the next attack.
Currently, Asaleia and his family live in Al-Shati camp, where they sleep on the ground without any roof for shelter and often wake up in panic due to the sounds of repeated explosions.
"My children have only had a few bites of food in a week. How can they live?," the man asked.
For Samia Abu Warda, the situation is not much different. She was forced to flee with her seven children on foot from Jabalia seven months ago after her husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
"The thing that terrified me the most during the displacement trip was race with death on the one hand and shock over the extent of destruction that affected all aspects of life on the other hand," Samia recalled.
"The displacement journey was like a horror movie that I did not imagine even in my nightmares," she told Xinhua.
With the ongoing attacks and daily hardships, both Asaleia and Samia are uncertain about when they might find themselves on the death list.
"We were alone, and no one could protect us. We will all die either quickly from the bombing or slowly from hunger," they complained.
Since Oct 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas in Gaza, which has led to 42,344 Palestinian deaths and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure, according to Gaza-based health authorities on Tuesday.
"The Israeli army destroyed 150,000 housing units and severely damaged more than 80,000 others, rendering them uninhabitable," said Ismail al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run media office in Gaza.
"The Israeli attacks also leveled 125 universities and schools and partially destroyed more than 337 other educational institutions, while the war deprived more than 780,000 students of education for the second year in a row," Al-Thawabta added.
As the war drags on for more than a year, people's hope fades for an end to all the death, bombing, and destruction, said Tayseer Awad, another Gaza-based displaced man.
"Even if the war stops... how many years will we spend removing the rubble and, more importantly, how many years will we spend healing ourselves?," Awad lamented. - XINHUA