Amna Soliman says she can’t leave her mother, who is in a wheelchair, so she stays, despite heavy fighting and repeated warnings to leave.
With Israeli tanks close, shrapnel pinging off the external walls of her home and the booms of airstrikes sounding nearby, Amna Soliman would like to heed a recent Israeli military warning to evacuate. But it’s not that simple.
Ms. Soliman, 42, a former teacher at the American International School of Gaza, said on Tuesday that her neighbors called to warn her more than a week ago that Israeli forces had entered the town of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, which came under heavy bombardment in the early months of the yearlong war. The Israeli military has said it is conducting an operation in the area to prevent Hamas militants from re-establishing a presence there.
Her neighbors have since fled, but Ms. Soliman, who lives with several other women and a 7-year-old, said she cannot join them because her mother uses a wheelchair and is unable to travel.
“I simply cannot take her out,” Ms. Soliman said by telephone from her apartment in Jabaliya, which has been shattered by Israeli airstrikes over the past year. “I cannot leave her either,” she added, “So we all stayed.”
Her dilemma mirrors that of many civilians in northern Gaza, a part of the enclave that is the subject of mounting international concern and rising casualties. It is not clear how many people have obeyed military orders to evacuate north Gaza but around 400,000 people remain, according to U.N. estimates. Some, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave. Some argue that they might face greater danger on the road or at their destination.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday that thousands of families in the area have been displaced and that those who remain are facing “unimaginable fear” as well as the loss of loved ones.
