Tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced in Gaza: UN | Gaza News

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Suheir al-Arbeed lists the basic needs that Hasan’s newborn baby has on the floor in a classroom in Gaza City, with five other children entering and leaving.
“We need food, clothes, duvets, mattresses and milk,” al-Arbeed, who gave birth two weeks ago, said in a telephone interview with Al Jazeera. “Sleeping on a thin blanket on the floor turns my back on me.”
“I have to ask others for diapers for my son,” she added. “I’m trying to breastfeed, but she’s still hungry and she’s still crying.”
The 30-year-old was one of hundreds of families who fled their homes in northern and eastern Gaza on Thursday night as heavy Israeli artillery and airstrikes shook the ground underground.
The families fled on foot, and ran in the dark for several kilometers to the Gaza al-Jadeeda school, one of the UNRWA-run UN refugee agencies run by Palestinians.
“There were no cars or transport available,” said al-Arbeed, whose home is located in the Shujaiyah area of northeastern Gaza.
For Umm Jamal al-Attar it is not the first time he and his family have been relocated. He told Al Jazeera that he spent 40 days sheltered in a school during the 2014 Gaza war, in which Israel killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians over 50 days.
Displaced families hang clothes to dry on railings while children play in the school yard [Mohammed Salem/Al Jazeera]
Umm Jamal, her husband and five children left Atatran in the northern town of Beit Lahia after leaving a house next door to an Israeli missile.
The attack killed Lamya al-Attar and his three children, Amir, Islam and Mohammed, who lived in a second-floor apartment.
“We were bombarding the Israelis with missiles and bombings. They also threw some gas, ”Umm Jamal said, and was unable to return home to get clothes or food.
“Our children need to be distracted with toys or anything that will take them off their heads from the bombing and the fear they have experienced,” he said. “Bombing is all they talk about now.”

‘Need for urgent help’
According to Gaza health authorities, the bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip in its second week has killed at least 201 Palestinians, including 58 children and 35 women. More than 1,300 others were injured.
Israel has reported at least 10 people, including two children, in rocket attacks carried out by Hamas, a Palestinian group that governs Gaza.
The escalation erupted last Monday when Israeli forces cracked down on protesters in the building of the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, injuring hundreds of Palestinians. When Israel failed to meet Hamas to withdraw its forces from the area around the holy site, which is sacred to Muslims and Jews, Hamas fired several rockets at Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards, Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza.
According to the United Nations, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been internally relocated to Gaza and are seeking refuge in 48 UNRWA schools across the coastal territory. There are at least 2,500 people in homes who have had their homes completely destroyed in the Israeli bombing.
In a brief statement on Monday, UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hassan said the agency has begun providing some basic necessities to displaced families.
“We need urgent help,” he said of the border crossing used by the Israelis on May 10 to bring humanitarian aid.
‘I need a blanket for my children’
Majda Abu Karesh, the mother of seven children whose house was destroyed in Beit Lahian, said families need to defend themselves around basic supplies.
“This is the fourth war we have to seek refuge in a school,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We have been sleeping on the ground floor for five days, and we have not received any food or supplies from UNRWA. There is no clean drinking water, and toilets are a mess. “
Majda Abu Karesh, a 30-year-old mother of seven, said this is the fourth time her family has been evicted from their Beit Lahia home in 2008-09 since the Israeli attack. [Mohammed Salem/Al Jazeera]
Shaher Barda, who had to leave Shujaiya alone with his family on his back, said the refugee agency did not “take much care of our situation.”
“We gathered ourselves, and each person paid a shekel ($ 0.30) to buy enough water,” he said. “We have no choice here, but because our homes are not bomb shelters and no one would survive from the crazy attacks in Israel.”
An Israeli army spokesman acknowledged the intensity of the bombing and firing on Friday, saying 160 warplanes had entered the previous night and used about 450 missiles and howitzers to attack 150 targets in 40 minutes.
The spokesman said the army was the target of an extensive network of underground tunnels used by Hamas, but many in the area discussed the statement, saying they had not seen any fighters.
Rajai Barda and his family Shujaiyah ran out of the house after Israeli airstrikes on May 12 destroyed a neighbor’s house. [Mohammed Salem/Al Jazeera]
Rajai, Barda’s relative, said he and his family could not return to their home because it was too dangerous.
“For many families here, living next to an Israeli fence is not the first time we have moved,” he said, sitting on a piece of cardboard that now turns into a bed.
“We want the world to help us,” he continued. “And we are behind the Aqsa Mosque in Gaza and the Palestinians are in Jerusalem and elsewhere. We all need to be together. But now I just need blankets for my kids, because they couldn’t sleep from the cold last night. ”
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