Lubna Ahmad Hussein Abu Sitta
The Electronic Intifada / July 30, 2024
I woke up to a knock on the door on Saturday, 27 July. It was a neighbor informing us of Israel’s evacuation orders, or, as I think of them, displacement orders. My family and I quickly got our things together. I prepared all my essential items and loaded them onto the cart.
Then, we left the house in Qaizan al-Najjar, a village in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The displacement experience this time was different from the four previous ones. This time it was sudden, and our financial situation was the most dire it’s been, with all our money and resources depleted.
I was afraid that even if we evacuated to a so-called safe zone, that Israel would still attack and kill us, like what happened in the al-Shakoush area west of Rafah, where Israel attacked without warning.
My family and I were headed toward Al-Balad, central Khan Younis. The journey was difficult.
All the way we walked in the street with neighbors and displaced people, each carrying their bags. Even the children carried their own belongings, panting and looking exhausted from walking.
After two hours of continuous walking alongside our animal-drawn carts, we reached the seaside area west of Al-Aqsa University. We had to find a place to pitch a tent for the night so we could start walking again the next day.
However, others’ tents covered every inch of land, leaving no empty space, whether in the depths of the camps or their outskirts.
We were forced to spend the night on the sand, close to the water. We had to keep our eyes open the whole night, as the waves kept encroaching on our spot, getting us wet as the tide came in.
Nearly 200,000 displaced in four days
Since 22 July, Israel’s attacks have displaced over 190,000 Palestinians in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
But some are refusing to be displaced yet again, whether by conviction or lack of means.
My mother’s friend Umm Hassan in Qaizan al-Najjar did not leave her home following these latest evacuation orders because she was simply not able to. She has no money, no means of transportation and no place to stay in the safe zone – which is not even safe.
Before the war, her husband was a merchant and landlord. They lived off some small crops they had on their land and the livestock they raised. The occupation bulldozed their land and demolished their house.
Our neighbor Ali also didn’t evacuate this time. He has four children with special needs and an elderly mother to take care of.
“Whenever I contact a family member to come and help me, he tells me that he keeps moving his tent and belongings. I couldn’t find a solution,” he said.
“I will stay here in our tent.”
Khalil, a relative of my father, also refused to leave his home after the Israeli evacuation order.
“What a person suffers after leaving his home is greater than the suffering of a fish when it comes out of water,” he said.
To Khalil, the displaced life is unbearable in light of the lack of the basic necessities of human life: no water, no food. The separation of families during displacement is also a hardship, as sometimes families are forced to be living apart due to a lack of space and resources.
Khalil said he would rather die than live under those circumstances again.
Lubna Ahmad Hussein Abu Sitta is a teacher and content writer from Gaza
