Against all odds, Palestinians in north Gaza defy Israeli evacuation orders

Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war on Gaza.

The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained.

Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territory's north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible “accomplices” of Hamas.

Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didn’t make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge.

The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.

Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.

Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity providing health services.

"It doesn’t make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza," he said.

Evacuation routes bombed

The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground invasion, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 7,000 lives in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israel's border with Palestine's Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.

Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates.

International rights groups have sharply criticised the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.

"When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices," said Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. "Nowhere is safe in Gaza."

Worse to come

Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighbourhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.

Services in the north have deteriorated since Israel’s evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel. In the north, entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble.

"Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And it’s really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel,” Shalabi said.

He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.