After Israel allowed them 24 hours before launching an all-out assault, Gaza inhabitants said they would rather die than evacuate their homes. Despite the UN’s warning that the area is “fast becoming a hellhole,” there was little sign of a mass evacuation by Friday afternoon. ‘Death is better than leaving,’ said Mohammad, 20, as he stood in the street beside a building leveled by an Israeli air attack two days earlier near Gaza’s center. ‘I was born here, and I will die here; leaving is a stigma,’ she says.
With power outages and food and water running low in the Palestinian enclave following a week of retaliatory air attacks and a full Israeli siege, the United Nations warned Gaza’s inhabitants were in an unsustainable situation.
‘The noose encircling Gaza’s civilian population is tightening. ‘How can 1.1 million people relocate through a densely populated warzone in less than 24 hours?’ Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ chief of assistance, posted on social media.
Hamas, which massacred Israeli citizens in Saturday’s strikes, vowed to fight until the last drop of blood was shed and urged people to stay put when Israel advised them to flee to avoid the onslaught because Hamas “is using you as human shields.”