Brian McDonald
Almost half a million people who have nowhere to go have left Rafa in southern Gaza before Israel’s long-awaited offensive, but the Israeli military continued to attack all areas of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli warplanes attacked a building in the Nueseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing several people – including women and children – while survivors had to be pulled from the rubble.
In another attack nearby, the Israel Defense Forces said it struck a “Hamas war room” at a UN school. Israel said it had killed more than 10 fighters, although CBS News was unable to independently verify that claim.
The carnage comes as aid agencies say hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel began attacking areas there last week. One of those who fled is Mustafa al-Gazzar, 81, now displaced and living in a temporary camp.
“I live in extreme fear,” he told CBS News.
All passages out of Gaza are now blocked, leaving 20 American doctors trapped inside.
“It has been very difficult to leave my wife, my two children and the family around. It was something I had to do,” Dr. Mohammed Abdelfattah of California told CBS News. “I felt like the efforts at home were going nowhere, they were falling on deaf ears.”
Abdelfattah was originally scheduled to leave Gaza on Monday, but he is now trapped in the strip’s European Hospital in Al-Fukhari, near Khan Yunis. He said the imminent operation in Gaza had generated fear among local residents.
“Locals have told me several times that there is no safe place in Gaza. They have seen in the last six, seven months, hospitals have been targeted, mosques have been targeted, churches, bakeries,” he said. “We are currently in a green zone, a ‘safe zone’, but the population knows that there is no safe zone in Gaza.”
Abdelfattah said many of the patients in the ICU are young children with “severe burns and explosive injuries that will practically lead to a guaranteed death here, and that’s what I’ve seen because of the lack of resources, the lack of supplies.”
“This is all intentional,” he added. “This is not a natural disaster. It is an intentional disaster that is being inflicted on these people with the support of my government.”
President Biden has become increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war and Gaza, to the point of pause shipments of some weapons to Israel because of concerns about IDF plans in Rafah. But Abdelfattah told CBS News that’s not enough.
“Every hour, American weapons are dropped on the people of Gaza and our American government – President Biden – has the power to stop all of this with just one phone call,” he said.
Abdelfattah said several people told him: “The only thing that gives us hope right now is the student protests that are occurring across the country at home.”
Meanwhile, Israel on Tuesday celebrated 76 years since the founding of the nation. But amid subdued celebrations, thousands of Israeli settlers marched toward Gaza, lock help to enter and demand the right to build settlements within Palestinian territory.
Aid agencies warn that more than a million Palestinians now face catastrophic levels of hunger. A floating dock that Biden ordered built to help speed aid distribution could soon become operational, allowing more food and supplies into the territory.
Imtiaz Tyab
