From one nightmare to another, Gazan families endure relentless bombardment and starvation as Israel's genocide rages on

“I was sleeping when an intense airstrike hit just a few metres from our house,” 21-year-old Dana Raid from the Al-Shejaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, tells The New Arab. 

"I woke up shaking, trying to understand what was happening. My cousin’s voice came through the dust, urging us to leave immediately,” Dana, who was forced to flee her partially destroyed home, adds. 

Like many areas across the Strip, the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings to her neighbourhood. Dana never imagined the war would return with the same horrors she had endured before. But on the morning of 11 April, her world shattered again.

Dana’s home, like most of the remaining houses in Gaza, was sheltering dozens of displaced people. Two of her aunts and their 11 children had been staying with them since losing their own homes.

They had managed to save some flour and canned food during the ceasefire. However, when Israeli artillery fire closed in, they were forced to flee with only what they could carry.

“Most of us were children or sick elderly — we didn’t know where to go,” Dana said. “There is no safe place. I felt like we were the only people left on Earth.”

The family walked for three hours until they reached a relative’s home in central Gaza City. Dana and her sisters stayed there, while the rest of the family had to separate and seek shelter elsewhere — there simply wasn’t enough room for everyone.

“Even though our area wasn’t under evacuation orders, we couldn’t sleep because of the terror of ongoing shelling. We wish we could return to our house — if it’s still standing — but no one can return. Israeli forces target anyone who comes close,” she added.

Surviving amidst destruction 

According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Israel’s repeated evacuation orders have forced Palestinians into “less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in.”

“That remaining space is fragmented, unsafe, and barely liveable,” the agency stated in a post on X.

Elsewhere, Sana Mousa, 60, was displaced to a tent on the rubble of her home in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Strip, during the ceasefire.

When Israeli airstrikes resumed and began carpet bombing Gaza on 18 March, she could not wait until morning to evacuate. She fled with her family on a donkey cart towards Gaza City as artillery shells struck her neighbourhood.

“More than 50 of our neighbours were killed that night,” she said. “We moved with dozens of other evacuees, with nowhere to go and without taking any belongings.”

Sana and her eight-member family found no space to set up a tent. They ended up clearing a small rubbish-strewn area on Al-Wahda Street in central Gaza City, where they have remained.

“We cannot sleep because of the insects and the smell of waste,” she explained. “But we, like many Gazans, have no place to set up a tent, especially with the massive destruction in Gaza and the overcrowding of displaced people everywhere.”

'Hunger is killing us slowly' 

At present, people in Gaza are once again at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition as humanitarian food stocks dwindle and borders remain closed to aid.

Since 2 March, Israel has completely shut all crossings into the enclave, cutting off food, humanitarian aid, and commercial supplies.

“All entry points into Gaza are closed. At the border, food is rotting. Medicine is expiring. Vital medical equipment is stuck,” said Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' humanitarian chief.

Although people have managed to survive on what little canned food and bread they had left, even the 19 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) have now shut down, having run out of flour and fuel; all closed on 31 March 2025.

“Our situation is very difficult. We depended on charity distributions, but they stopped because the markets are empty,” said Sana. “We eat one small meal of canned food or lentils. Hunger is killing us slowly.”

Speaking from southern Rafah, 39-year-old Israa Jamal said she and her six-member family had been living in an empty garage during the ceasefire, after their house was destroyed in Israeli attacks in May 2024.

Once again, on 3 April, they were forced to flee as Israeli forces launched a new offensive in Rafah to create a military corridor known as the Morag Corridor.

“The deafening sound of bombs and the roar of tanks moving through the area was terrifying,” Israa said. “We grabbed what we could carry and fled under heavy bombardment.”

She and her relatives evacuated to Khan Younis, where they took shelter in her husband’s relative’s home.

Call to action 

As the world watches, many have spoken out not only against Israel’s repeated displacement orders but also its use of starvation as a form of collective punishment against Palestinians in Gaza.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that it has completely run out of food supplies in Gaza, as Israel’s aid blockade enters its eighth consecutive week.

“Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip. These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days,” the agency said in a statement, adding, “The situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point: people are running out of ways to cope, and the fragile gains made during the short ceasefire have unravelled.”

Gaza's government office also issued a dire warning on Friday, stating that Palestinians in the besieged enclave are “on the brink of mass death” from widespread famine due to Israel’s aid blockade and the collapse of essential services.

“More than one million children are at risk of famine, while thousands of families face death while starving. Time is running out, and any delay in action is complicity in the crime,” the office reported. 

Ahmed Dremly is a Gaza-based journalist whose writings have appeared in Mondoweiss, Palestine Chronicle, The Electronic Intifada and Al-Monitor

Follow him on Instagram: @ahmeddremly