The decision was reluctant but unavoidable. When Salman, 42, was reduced to sending her young son around to neighbours to beg for a single piece of bread for her pregnant daughter, she knew the family had to leave. Days earlier, her eldest son had been stabbed to death for a bag of flour.
"We were living on rice and beans and grass. My eldest son was gone. The situation was catastrophic... We saw things that we never imagined we would ever see," she said.
Salman and her surviving children headed south on foot and cart through the rubble and ruins of central Gaza to al-Mawasi, which five months ago was barren but aid agencies say is now home to 380,000 people.
In October, just weeks after the beginning of the war in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told residents of Gaza to evacuate to al-Mawasi to avoid being caught up in the offensive launched in response to Hamas's 7 October attack. The IDF promised "international humanitarian aid will be provided as needed".
More recently, during fighting around al-Shifa hospital 10 days ago, the IDF told communities in the combat zone to evacuate "to the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi".
But any safety in al-Mawasi is only relative to the rest of the territory, where more than 32,000 Palestinians have died, mostly women and children, during the relentless Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.
Denne historien er fra March 27, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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Denne historien er fra March 27, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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