Gaza soccer stadium is now a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians
UNB
Publish: 06 Jul 2024, 05:12 PM
GAZA
CITY, Gaza Strip, Jul 06 (AP/UNB) - Thousands of displaced Palestinians in
northern Gaza have sought refuge in one of the territory's largest soccer
arenas, where families now scrape by with little food or water as they try to
keep one step ahead of Israel's latest offensive.
Their makeshift tents
hug the shade below the stadium's seating, with clothes hanging in the July sun
across the dusty, dried-up soccer field. Under the covered benches where
players used to sit, Um Bashar bathes a toddler standing in a plastic tub.
Lathering soap through the boy's hair, he wiggles and shivers as she pours the
chilly water over his head, and he grips the plastic seats for balance.
They've been displaced
multiple times, she said, most recently from Israel's renewed operations
against Hamas in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City.
"We woke up and
found tanks in front of the door," she says. "We didn't take anything
with us, not a mattress, not a pillow, not any clothes, not a thing. Not even
food."
She fled with a group of
70 other people to Yarmouk Sports Stadium - a little under 2 miles (3
kilometers) northwest of Shijaiyah, which was heavily bombed and largely
emptied early in the war. Many of the people who ended up in the stadium say
they have nothing to return to.
"We left our
homes," said one man, Hazem Abu Thoraya, "and all of our homes were
bombed and burned, and all those around us were as well."
Hundreds of thousands of
people have remained in northern Gaza, even as Israeli troops have surrounded
and largely isolated it. However, aid flows there have improved recently, and
the U.N. said earlier this week that it is now able to meet people's basic
needs in the north. Israel says it allows aid to enter Gaza and blames the U.N.
for not doing enough to move it.
Still, residents say the
deprivation and insecurity are taking an ever-growing toll.
"There is no safe
place. Safety is with God," said a displaced woman, Um Ahmad. "Fear
is now felt not only among the children, but also among the adults. ... We
don't even feel safe walking in the street."
End/UNB/AP/HM