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Ethar ShalabyBBC News Arabic<\/p>\n
‘We miraculously fled amid ear-splitting shelling’published at 14:01 BST<\/p>\n
14:01 BST<\/p>\n
Ethar Shalaby
BBC News Arabic<\/p>\n
From inside a make-shift tent in al-Rimal neighbourhood in
\nGaza City, Amjad al-Nawati, a 33-year-old Palestinian, tells me over the phone
\nthat he and his family have their backpacks packed with essentials, and are ready
\nto flee towards al-Nussairat \u2013 the closest point to which they can head to
\nafter Israel started its ground operation last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see many of the people around me in neighbouring
\ntents have fled already, but I am waiting until I see the tanks coming closer
\nto us,\u201d al-Nawati, who used to work as a
\ntherapist, says.<\/p>\n
He says the \u201cear-splitting sounds of the heavy bombardment\u201d
\nall night have made his disabled brother, Ahmed, aged 25 suffer tantrums and a
\ndeprived sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Ahmed) kept putting his hand on his ears all night and
\ntrembling from fear. I had to calm him and tell him we are leaving soon. It was
\none of the worst nights in his life,\u201d al-Nawati says.<\/p>\n
I also spoke to others who have already fled Gaza City for safer areas.<\/p>\n
Essam Shawa, a 40-year-old carpenter, left with his family
\nof four from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah last night. They walked for around 12
\nhours, taking only short breaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe left without even taking our things. No clothes, no
\nbelongings, nothing! It was miraculous how we managed to survive the shelling
\nin al-Tuffah and get out. It was a long walk and we are all weary,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As they were fleeing, Shawa said he could hear the sounds of
\nthe Israeli tanks, \u201cwhich meant they were present close to us, but we didn\u2019t
\nsee it\u201d. Other family members of Shawa are still unable to leave the al-Tuffah area due to the heavy shelling, he says.<\/p>\n
I ask him about his wife and he says: \u201cMy wife and kids are
\nnow sitting beside me am currently sitting in a tent in Deir al-Balah and we
\nare desperate not knowing what we will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shawa\u2019s wife Ayat tells me her children \u201cpaid the heaviest
\nprice\u201d during their journey .\u201cIt was hard for me to find a place for them to
\ngo to the toilet or feed them. They kept crying all the way and it was a long
\ntreacherous trip\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘We miraculously fled amid ear-splitting shelling’published at 14:01 BST 14:01 BST Ethar ShalabyBBC News Arabic From inside a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-141265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}