Gaza City – Fatima el-Alayan, an 80-year-old grandmother, sits in her wheelchair surrounded by her family and hundreds of others seeking safety at Shifa Hospital. Displacement is not a new experience for her, but she says this time feels even worse than the Nakba she lived through in 1948.
“We don’t have any food,” Fatima said. “This is far harder than what I remember from 1948. The Israelis keep killing children.”
Fatima came to the hospital four days ago from her home in the Shuja’iyya area, seeking refuge from the relentless Israeli bombing. She is originally from al-Majdal, one of the Palestinian villages that were demolished to make way for the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
“I was five years old in 1948,” she recalled. “I remember we helped the new Israeli settlers out, we gave them wheat and food.”
Fatima and the rest of the 750,000 Palestinians who were forcibly displaced more than seven decades ago were never allowed to return to their homes.
On Thursday night, the Israeli military dropped leaflets and called for residents in the north of the Gaza Strip to evacuate and head south in the embattled coastal enclave.
The el-Alayans had to leave their home in Shuja’iyya after an Israeli attack bombed their neighbor’s house, where 60 people had sought shelter hoping to remain safe.
“Where are the Arab leaders?” Fatima cried out. “No one in the world is coming to our aid.”
Fatima is one of the thousands of Palestinians currently taking refuge at Shifa Hospital, having been forced to leave their homes due to the constant Israeli bombardment.
According to the government media office in Gaza, at least 40,000 people have sought refuge at the hospital, believing it to be the safest option.
Families have set up blankets in the corridors, outside in the hospital grounds, and around clinics. They are here, hoping that at the very least, a hospital will be spared from Israeli bombs.
The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Over 6,000 others have been wounded, and entire neighborhoods have been flattened.
Ahmad Abu Ateina, 60, fled her home on Hmeid Street along with her daughters and grandchildren, a total of 20 people.
“Where else could we go?” she asked. “If I were to leave the hospital, where would I go with my children?
“We didn’t have time to collect our belongings,” she said. “We slept on the floor on a blanket. It’s a shame that the Arab leaders are watching this happen to us.”
Sabreen Jaradeh has been at Shifa Hospital since she left her home in Beit Hanoun. She has been taking care of an unidentified young girl who arrived at the hospital a few days ago after an Israeli bomb hit her home in the Shati refugee camp.
“My brother told me there was a girl crying because she lost her family. I’ve been taking care of her since last night. She cries out for her mother a lot, but at least she is eating.”