[News] 'We will not leave Gaza City': Palestinians wow to resist, stay put

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-we-will-not-leave-gaza-city---palestinians-wow-to-resist--s>
'We will not leave Gaza City': Palestinians wow to resist, stay put
Al Mayadeen English
August 9, 2025
------------------------------

Following 22 months of war, "Israel" plans to seize Gaza City, risking the
displacement of 1 million Palestinians already facing hunger, disease, and
collapsed healthcare.

   - [image: Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian
   aid convoy en route to Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday,
   July 31, 2025 (AP)]
   <https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/8/9/3e337b18-f574-41e2-94fa-d56d3723cef1.jpg?width=1000>
   Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy
   en route to Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 31, 2025
   (*AP*)

After 22 months of war, approximately 1 million Palestinians, already
displaced, living in tents or ruins, and suffering from hunger and lack of
medical care, face another crisis as "Israel’s"
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/un-security-council-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-gaza-saturd>
security cabinet plans to seize control of Gaza City, forcing them to flee
southward toward an uncertain future.

Umm Ibrahim Banat, a 55-year-old mother displaced four times from northern
Gaza, expressed her fear and anxiety to *The Guardian* after hearing about
the evacuation order
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/five-western-allies-reject--israel-s--new-gaza-offensive>
for Gaza City, "Where will we go with the children and the elderly? I swear
we are exhausted from displacement, starvation, and being driven from one
place to another."

“Now,” she said, “we are the walking dead.”
'Israel' approves plan to seize Gaza

Following a 10-hour overnight meeting on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that his security cabinet had
approved a plan
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/merz-arms-export-halt-to--israel--sparks-rift-in-german-coal>
to seize control of Gaza City, further escalating "Israel’s" war on Gaza,
which has already claimed the lives of at least 61,000 Palestinians, the
majority of them civilians.

"Israel’s" *Channel 12* reported that the plan, involving the deployment of
ground troops into the territory
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iran-condemns-israeli-gaza-occupation-plan--calls-for-oic-ac>,
could displace tens of thousands of people, worsen the already strained aid
delivery
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/palestine-un-envoy--netanyahu-s-gaza-takeover-plan-defies-co>
efforts, and push around 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City and
surrounding areas toward evacuation zones in the southern part of the strip.

Heartbroken after losing her daughter's entire family, Banat denounced
Gaza's unbearable conditions, the disease-ridden tent camps, undrinkable
water, collapsed hospitals, and endless suffering
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-famine-deaths-top-200-as-israeli-strikes-kill-more-civi>,
demanding to know what more could be taken from a people who've lost
everything.
Already preparing to leave

Abu Nasser Mushtaha, a 35-year-old father of four from Gaza's Rimal
neighborhood, expressed his fear for his family's safety, stating, "If we
are ordered to evacuate, I will leave everything and go, fearing for my
family and children. The cost of staying would be too high. I have already
lost enough; my mother was killed at the beginning of the war when the
Israeli occupation bombed a neighbouring house."

Mushtaha revealed he had begun financial preparations to cut costs while
planning to take only essential belongings, grimly predicting that this
impending crisis would undoubtedly mark the final destruction of Gaza's
population.

With over 90% of Palestinians already displaced at least once during the
war and nearly 10% suffering injuries from Israeli attacks, the population
now faces even greater suffering as the decimated healthcare system
collapses further and "Israel" blocks most aid agencies
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-s-starvation-crisis--why-food-aid-alone-can-t-stop-the>
like the UN from delivering critical assistance.
Defiance despite desperation

Hossam al-Saqa, a 46-year-old father of two from Gaza City, told *The
Guardian* he couldn't comprehend how authorities expected to relocate
Gaza's entire population to the already overwhelmed south, declaring his
family's determination to remain on their land despite the mortal dangers
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/un--uk-warn--israel--against-gaza-city-control-plot--call-fo>,
vowing he would stay even at gunpoint.

“I see Netanyahu’s and Israel’s propaganda as nothing more than media
fireworks meant to intimidate and spread fear among the people,” al-Saqa
said, adding, “This will not scare us, for God is with us, and He is
stronger than everyone.”

Al-Saqa, echoing sentiments widespread across Gaza City, interpreted the
occupation plan as a coercive tactic to force Hamas into surrender
following the collapse of last month's US, Egyptian, and Qatari-mediated
negotiations.

Ibrahim Abu al-Husni, a 47-year-old man who lost his 23-year-old son in the
war, defiantly declared his attachment to his homeland, stating, "This is
our land where we grew up since childhood, and we will not give it up
easily. I will not leave this city."

“I will live here, and I will die here," he assertively stated.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250809/17ccbc42/attachment-0001.htm>