Displaced Gazans Head Back North after Finding South No Safer

Mahmud HAMS / AFP
Mahmud HAMS / AFP
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Displaced Gazans Head Back North after Finding South No Safer

Mahmud HAMS / AFP
Mahmud HAMS / AFP

When Israel warned civilians to leave northern Gaza, Rahma Saqallah and her family fled south. But after Israeli bombs killed her husband and three of her children, she is heading back home.

"Wherever we go, we will die," Saqallah said, as she prepared to leave the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the territory to return to Gaza City with her surviving child.

She is among roughly 600,000 Palestinians UN officials have said fled south in response to Israel's warning to evacuate "for your own safety".

Israel's relentless bombardment was launched on October 7 in retaliation for the Hamas attack which Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people, AFP reported.

The strikes, which the Hamas-run health ministry says have killed more than 7,000 people, were initially concentrated in Gaza City.

But repeated deadly strikes on the south of the territory in recent days have prompted 30,000 of the displaced to head back home, according to UN figures.

Many were in any case struggling to find shelter in Khan Yunis, an already densely populated city which has been swamped by the influx of families fleeing the north.

On Wednesday, before leaving, Saqallah told AFP: "My husband and my three sons, Daoud, Mohammad and Majed, became martyrs on Tuesday at dawn".

- 'Die in our own homes'-

Her husband was 47, her son Majed 9, and Daoud 18, while Mohammad was due to "celebrate his 15th birthday today (Wednesday)," she said.

The strike "destroyed the second and third floors" of the apartment building in which multiple families, around 60 people, were sheltering, she said.

It killed 11 members of her extended family and 26 people from other families.

"From my family, only me and my daughter Raghad (17) are still alive. We are alive but I cannot say that we are well," she said.

"They have reduced Gaza to ruins, they want to turn it into a cemetery.

"They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here)," Saqallah said, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar".

Like so many other displaced people heading home, Abdallah Ayyad, his wife and their five daughters had squeezed onto a cart pulled by a motorcycle for the journey back to Gaza City having earlier taken shelter in the grounds of Deir el-Balah hospital.

"We are going back to die in our own homes. That will be more dignified," said the father, in a tone that blended resignation with disgust.

"We live in humiliating conditions here. Nothing to eat, nothing to drink, no toilets and, to top it all, there are bombs going off everywhere," he said.

'Nowhere is safe'

Some of those returning north have found it impossible to reach their homes due to the intensity of the bombing.

Instead, they have resigned themselves to sheltering in the grounds of Al-Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza City.

There, whole families huddled beneath canvas tarpaulins hung from the walls and concrete pillars as makeshift tents.

"I, my wife, my children and my brothers-in-law, roughly 40 people in total, live in a tent that can't be more than three square meters (32 square feet). It's unfit even for livestock," said Mohammad Abou al-Nahel, one of those displaced.

"We can hardly use the toilets because of the overcrowding. We are always seeing martyrs and wounded arriving. We don't have fresh water to drink and the children are sick because of the cold," said Mennah al-Bahtiti, a refugee who had fled from southern Gaza to the hospital.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, warned on Thursday that "nowhere is safe in Gaza" because of Israel's bombing.

Asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on its persistent bombing of the south after urging civilians to seek refuge there.



UN Food Agency Says Its Food Stocks in Gaza Have Run out under Israel’s Blockade

A girl puts a pot to her head as Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2025. (Reuters)
A girl puts a pot to her head as Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN Food Agency Says Its Food Stocks in Gaza Have Run out under Israel’s Blockade

A girl puts a pot to her head as Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2025. (Reuters)
A girl puts a pot to her head as Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2025. (Reuters)

The World Food Program says its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel’s nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory.

The WFP said in a statement that it delivered the last of its stocks to charity kitchens that it supports around Gaza. It said those kitchens are expected to run out of food in the coming days.

Some 80% of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million relies primarily on charity kitchens for food, because other sources have shut down under Israel’s blockade, according to the UN. The WFP has been supporting 47 kitchens that distribute 644,000 hot meals a day, WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told the Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear how many kitchens would still be operating in Gaza if those shut down. But Etefa said the WFP-backed kitchens are the major ones in Gaza.

Israel cut off entry of all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza on March 2 and then resumed its bombardment and ground offensives two weeks later, shattering a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It says the moves aim to pressure Hamas to release hostages it still holds. Rights groups have called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.

Israel has said Gaza has enough supplies after a surge of aid entered during the ceasefire and accuses Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the UN strictly monitors distribution. They say the aid flow during the ceasefire was barely enough to cover the immense needs from throughout the war when only a trickle of supplies got in.

With no new goods entering Gaza, many foods have disappeared from markets, including meat, eggs, fruits, dairy products and many vegetables. Prices for what remains have risen dramatically, becoming unaffordable for much of the population. Most families rely heavily on canned goods.

Malnutrition is already surging. The UN said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March, up 80% from the month before. At the same time, because of diminishing supplies, aid groups were only able to provide nutritional supplements to some 22,000 children in March, down 70% from February. The supplements are a crucial tool for averting malnutrition.

Almost all bakeries shut down weeks ago and the WFP stopped distribution of food basics to families for lack of supplies. With stocks of most ingredients depleted, charity kitchens generally can only serve meals of pasta or rice with little added.

World Central Kitchen -- a US charity that is one of the biggest in Gaza that doesn’t rely on the WFP -- said Thursday that its kitchens had run out of proteins. Instead, they make stews from canned vegetables. Because fuel is scarce, it dismantles wooden shipping pallets to burn in its stoves, it said. It also runs the only bakery still functioning in Gaza, producing 87,000 loaves of pita a day.

The WFP said 116,000 tons of food is ready to be brought into Gaza if Israel opens the borders, enough to feed 1 million people for four months.

Israel has leveled much of Gaza with its air and ground campaign, vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. It has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

In the Oct. 7 attack, gunmen killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. They still hold 59 hostages after most were released in ceasefire deals.