The road south of Gaza City is hopelessly clogged with cars, carts and people trying to escape on foot to the "Al-Mawasi" refugee camp. With more than 30 kilometers per hour, no one can move, reports ARD correspondent Julio Segador.
"We lost everything"
Ziyad Kalut from Gaza City stands in front of a cart loaded with the little he has left. The man seems to have accepted his fate. He says: "We lost everything. We lost our lives and all our possessions. We lost our money and our homes. What else could happen?"
After nearly two years of war, Gazans are desperate, writes ARD. Once again, they must flee. Samira Issa has spent her entire life in Gaza City. The Palestinian feels that her homeland has been irretrievably lost: "Everything is marked by destruction and death. The blocks have been blown up. It took years to build them, and now everything is completely destroyed. They have not left a single place without destruction," she says. "I beg the whole world and all the Arab nations, all the kings and presidents, support us, save us. We are exhausted."
Between 200,000 and 300,000 people have followed the Israeli evacuation order. Another 600,000, however, refuse to leave their city despite military pressure.
Israel is preparing for fighting that will last for months
Despite Israel's clear military superiority, the country's army is preparing for a prolonged guerrilla war with Hamas, its spokeswoman Effie Defrin emphasized: "We will act until we achieve our military objectives. We have no time limit. We believe that it will take several months to take control of the city and its key points, and at least several more months to clear it. Because Hamas's infrastructure is deeply rooted and well-developed."
The Israeli ground offensive and the fighting in urban areas pose great dangers for all participants, including Palestinian citizens and Israeli hostages. There are serious concerns that they will be used as human shields. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an unequivocal threat to Hamas: "If they touch even a hair of the hostages, just one hair, we will pursue them with great force for the rest of their lives, and that end will come much sooner than some think."
"There is no justification for this offensive"
However, criticism of Israel's actions and the offensive in Gaza City has not subsided. "From a military and political point of view, there is no justification for this offensive", believes German political scientist Stefan Stätter of the Bundeswehr University in Munich. "It endangers the lives of the hostages. From a humanitarian point of view, it is incomprehensible. And it does not serve the purpose of defeating Hamas," he added to ARD.
"There is broad international support that Hamas must be defeated and that it should play no role in a post-war Gaza. But it must be a Gaza that is livable and in which there is a political future for the Palestinians. And that is precisely the problem we are facing," said Stetter.
Author: Julio Segador ARD