Gaza: Hundreds of Palestinians left homeless by weeks of Israeli bombing are trapped in Gaza's prisons, built to hold murderers and thieves.
Yasmin al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they could not help as they were being evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Yunis to the central prison and rehabilitation facility.
They spent their days under a tree before moving to the old prison, and now they live in a prayer room. It provides some protection from the hot sun, but not much else.
Al-Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and only one lung, but he has no mattress or blankets.
“We are not settled here either,” said Al-Dardasi. Like many Palestinians, she fears being uprooted again.
Israel said it was doing its best to protect civilians.
Palestinians who have fled their homes and become refugees several times say there is no place free from Israeli bombing, which has reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 90 Palestinians in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawashi on July 13, the area's health ministry said. Israel said the strikes targeted Mohammed Deif, a suspected Hamas military leader.
On Thursday, the Gaza Strip's Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes in the eastern Khan Yunis area had killed 14 people.
In one of the most densely populated places in the world, entire neighborhoods were devastated where poverty and unemployment had long been widespread.
According to the United Nations, nine out of 10 Gaza residents are now internally displaced.
Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family to run for safety because tanks were coming, she said. The family left in prayer clothes, not even having time to change clothes.
After sleeping outside on the sand, they too sought refuge in the prison, among the rubble and holes in the building left by the fighting. The prisoners were released long before the Israeli attack.
“We didn’t take anything with us. We came on foot, walking with our children,” she said, adding that many of the women have five or six children and water is hard to find.
She was holding her nephew, who was born during the conflict that killed her father and brothers.
According to Palestinian health officials, more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by Israeli air and ground offensives.
Hana al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being kicked out six times.
She and other Palestinians may be on the move again if Egyptian, American and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire that they have long said is close.
“Where should we go? Everywhere we go is dangerous,” she said.
