GAZA: After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them nowhere to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.
Yasmeen Al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they could not help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis toward its central correctional and rehabilitation facility.
They spent a day under a tree before moving to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It provides protection from the blowing sun but not much else.
Al-Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and only one lung but no mattress or blanket.
“We are not settled here either,” said Al-Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted again.
Israel has said it is doing everything to protect civilians.
Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, say nowhere is free from Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief, Mohammed Deif.
On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas of eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.
Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.
According to the UN, nine out of ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.
Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family they should flee for safety because tanks were on their way, she said. The family did not have time to change and left in prayer clothes.
After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they also found sanctuary in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles fought there. Prisoners had been released long before Israel attacked.
“We took nothing with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us,” she said, adding that many women had five or six children and it was difficult to find water.
She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which killed her father and brothers.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground offensive since October 7, Palestinian health officials say.
Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.
If Egyptian, American and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians could be at it again.
“Where are we going? All the places we go are dangerous,” she says.
