(24 Nov 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mawasi, southern Gaza Strip - 19 November 2023
1. Tilt-down from tent to people standing under it as wind blows, child crying
2. Woman calming children
3. Woman standing
4. Pan from tent to rain pouring outside
5. People standing next to children
6. Donkey wading through rainwater
7. Various of people walking through rainwater
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Iman Skaik, woman living in shelter at Mawasi:
"I am so worried for the children because even they are scared. Even though they are children, they are scared. They tell their dad, 'we fled the bombardment to find bombardment.' There is no safety, none whatsoever. Here in Mawasi, we thought there would be safety but there is no safety. We are still getting bombarded."
9. Child eating cucumber
10. Skaik giving child food
11. Children eating
12. Various of Nevine al-Kafarna, woman displaced from northern Gaza Strip, and others adjusting tarp of tent
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nevine al-Kafarna, woman displaced from northern Gaza Strip now living in Mawasi:
"I spend my whole day struggling to do the simplest of tasks. When I take one of my little kids to the bathroom, I wait in a long line behind nine or 10 women. If someone feels sorry for the little girl, they let us go in (faster). Sometimes, we don't the children sometimes come back after two or three times without being able to go to the bathroom because there are too many people. Going to the bathroom is very difficult here."
14. Various of women baking bread
15. Various of people in between tents
16. Various of tents
STORYLINE:
Palestinians are struggling to get through the simplest tasks of their day in the already overcrowded shelter in Mawasi, where more newcomers displaced by the fighting in Gaza keep arriving.
Mawasi, Israel said, is now a safe zone, an enclave along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast where waves of people fleeing the war can find protection from airstrikes and supplies for their families but there, rows of tents are stretched out over farm fields, with people trying to do everything to survive and get protected of the coming rain, the winter and the bombardments.
The children tell their dad, 'we fled the bombardment to find bombardment.' There is no safety, none whatsoever," said Iman Skaik, a woman sheltering in Mawasi.
Most of Gaza’s population is crowded into southern Gaza, including hundreds of thousands who heeded Israel’s calls to evacuate the north and move to Southern Gaza Strip, to get out of the way of its ground offensive.
Some 1.5 million people driven from their homes have packed into U.N. shelters, houses with other families or even hospitals seeking a safe place where to stay.
Israel first mentioned Mawasi as a humanitarian zone in late October. International aid officials have warned that Israel has done nothing to create a true safe zone, and even the U.S., Israel’s fiercest ally, has indicated Palestinian civilians need more protection.
A joint statement signed by the leaders of some of the world’s largest humanitarian groups, including the top U.N. agencies, Care International, Mercy Corps, and the World Health Organization, rejected the idea that Israel could unilaterally set up a safe zone.
“Without the right conditions, concentrating civilians in such zones in the context of active hostilities can raise the risk of attack and additional harm,” said the November 16 statement.
"Here in Mawasi, we thought there would be safety but there is no safety. We are still getting bombarded." commented Skaik.
AP video shot by Mohammad Jahjouh
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