Sunrise over Gaza City and the sound of
Israeli surveillance drones is constant.
Searching out what the Israelis claim
are the final strongholds of Hamas.
The 401st Brigade has begun to move in,
returning to areas supposedly conquered
in previous operations,
but say the Israelis also extending into
areas not previously attacked.
Tanks, jets, and drones are pounding the
suburbs of Gaza City ahead of a more
significant troop advance, threatening
to destroy what's left here unless Hamas
releases all its hostages after almost
700 days in captivity. And though Israel
wants a million or so Palestinians to
leave, many are still refusing.
>> The situation is, as you can see, we are
under fire. We won't leave. We are
staying in their faces. God willing, we
will remain here.
>> But thousands have begun heading south.
Their lives quite literally on their
backs. Heading towards the camps they
fled to during previous offensives. With
no ceasefire to make their journey
through a war zone any easier.
This coastal road may be a safer route.
Civilians fleeing past sun-kissed
beaches in panic from the increased
tempo of explosions.
Hamas fighters are likely to be hiding
amongst this traffic, potentially
allowing them to fight another day, and
if so, withholding from the Israelis the
outright victory their government claims
it can achieve.
Which is why this buildup of tanks may
be in part about Israeli politics,
about persuading hardliners not to
topple Israel's ruling coalition by
leaving it. A call up of 60,000
reserveists will bring the total to
120,000. The Gaza city operation against
military advice with commanders warning
that it will exhaust the troops and
endanger the 20 or so living hostages.
It could also further endanger the lives
of these Palestinians. Gaza's famine is
at its worst here in Gaza City and north
of it. The latest UN estimate is that
more than half a million people are
starving.
We came to this charity kitchen because
there is no distribution of aid. Either
that or we don't receive it. People
steal it and sell it in the markets. We
have no home left, no food, and no
income.
>> Israel calls its offensive gradual,
precise, and targeted, but not precise
or targeted enough to stop this
9-year-old boy being taken for burial
this morning.
>> "The houses are gone, everything's gone,
and now my son is gone," says his
father.
These mourers in Gaza City might well
privately curse Hamas for fighting
amongst them, but in public they curse
Israel more with the Israeli ground
assault expected to begin in earnest in
a few weeks time.
>> Well, earlier I spoke to Dr. Ahmed Al
Farah, who's the head of pediatrics at
NASA Hospital in Kunis, southern Gaza. I
began by asking whether he's seeing more
patients injured by bombings or
suffering from malnutrition.
>> We saw a lot of cases are uh suffering
from severe severe starvation. We saw
that a baby is 9 month or one year
age. He looks like one uh one old man 70
or 72 years. He lost the uh the the
zygumatic subcutaneous tissue and he has
prominent cheeks looks like a man is in
70 or 75 years old. This is we call this
senile face and we saw the loss of hair.
We saw the alopeescia we saw flag sign
of the hair. We saw nutritional edema a
lot of cases that it is talking about
the serious uh condition of famining
gazm. You know we have outpatient clinic
for uh severe acute malnutrition. This
clinic is used to receive 10 cases every
day. It is it is working uh two t two
days per week. Okay. Uh uh Saturday and
Thursday. Last Saturday, last Saturday
they received 120 cases of severe acute
malnutrition.
>> Wow.
>> This is unbelievable. I I I I visited
the uh the clinic and I support the
doctors and nurses who are working
there. They were completely exhausted.
They were shook due to a number of
cases. Everyone is asking for uh a
nutrient. Everyone is afraid about his
son or his boy or his girl. You know h
starvation is not just the heart of the
stomach for the baby. It is the heart.
It is the pain of the heart for the
mother and for the father. It is very
very very painful
feeling that you are unable to offer
anything for your baby and you see him
is losing weight, losing muscles, losing
fat. He just a skeleton covered by skin
and you are watching while while he's
leaving and you can't offer anything for
him.
>> Residents of Gaza City are being told to
evacuate, to leave and go south. Do you
feel safe in Khan Ununice or is nowhere
safe really in in G in the strip as a
whole?
>> No place is safe in in in Gaza even even
my friend to be in a womb in a womb in
the uterus in your mother you are not
safe. We have saw cases that babies in
their in their wombs in the uterus of
their mothers their mothers are pregnant
and they targeted
h and they were killed and even the baby
inside her womb or uterus was executed
and expired.
>> So no place is safe in Gaza. But you
have to choose the way to die. What toll
does that take on you and and and your
staff?
>> We don't have a chance for to to leave
and we we have to we have to work in
hospitals because this is our duty.
Even uh we even the border is clo is
completely closed. I have to stay here
because I am a doctor and I have to
treat the patient. If I traveled outside
who who will uh who will treat this
patient? who will care about these
pediatrics. I want all my family to
leave because it is unsafe as you
mentioned
>> and uh I think this will be a long last
long more and more because there is no
no intention for the other side to stop
that.
>> Dr. Ahmed Alara, thank you very much for
joining us.
>> Thank you my friend.