MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Palestinians are under mass evacuation orders in Gaza. Israel says it plans to capture 75% of the territory and defeat Hamas. Hundreds of people have died in increased airstrikes over recent weeks, and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced. That's according to the United Nations. Israel is allowing food into restricted areas under a new plan backed by the U.S., but the head of that plan just resigned amid intense criticism from aid groups. NPR's Daniel Estrin brings us reporting by NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza City.
(SOUNDBITE OF DIGGING)
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Another cleanup after another Israeli strike. It hit overnight on a school in Gaza City housing newly displaced families. Israel's military said it targeted Hamas militants plotting attacks there. A Gaza rescue group says more than 30 people were killed, including at least 18 children. Jamalat Abdelaal came running from her tent nearby, trying to help.
JAMALAT ABDELAAL: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: "We found body parts and everyone screaming on fire," she says. Children dead. What did they do? Displacement, hunger and threat of death hang over Gaza today.
Israel restricts food and is greatly restricting where civilians can shelter now, ordering hundreds of thousands to move further south. Gaza City is now a sprawling refugee camp. Its once charming harbor is covered in tents. NPR's Anas Baba meets Sulaf Wishah, who pitched a tent here with her family a couple of days ago.
SULAF WISHAH: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: "There are flies and mosquitoes feeding on our blood," she says. There's a trap on the floor of the tent to catch the mouse that's been eating the little bread they have, she says. Nearly 600 days into the war NPR's Anas Baba asks her...
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: "Describe your feelings."
WISHAH: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: "There are no feelings," she says. "You wake up and go to sleep to the sound of shelling, eat and drink to the sound of shelling, pray to the sound of shelling." She's seven months pregnant, but doctors say they can't detect a pulse from her fetus. They say she suffers from malnutrition.
Hunger is widespread after a nearly three-month ban on food, medicine and other supplies. Now, under U.S. pressure, Israel is allowing limited quantities back in a new plan touted by the U.S. that aid groups are criticizing. In a video defending Israel's latest campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Palestinian civilians will have to move south to get food.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: American companies will distribute the food directly to Palestinian families. They'll do so in safe zone secured by our military. And this will allow us to complete our goal of destroying Hamas, while enabling aid to reach the civilian population.
ESTRIN: A U.S.-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, says it will be in charge of distributing parcels. But the U.S. Marine veteran who headed the group resigned late last night. He says its methods don't follow humanitarian principles. Aid groups say it's wrong to restrict access to aid and to resign a population to mass displacement.
At the tent camp on the Gaza port, 62-year-old Majd Adwan says she would move toward one of the newly designated zones to get food because she doesn't see any other choice.
MAJD ADWAN: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: She says, yesterday all she ate was a piece of bread and a pinch of salt.
Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv, with reporting by NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
