GAZA: An Arab News reporter in Rafah, southern Gaza, narrowly escaped being killed on Friday when Israeli airstrikes hit an area where he, his family, and hundreds of other displaced Palestinians were sheltering.
Ahmed Hijazee, who has been living in a makeshift tent since an Israeli attack leveled his family home, was heading to a location in Rafah where his mother and relatives had taken refuge when the raid took place.
The family planned to share a meal, as many Palestinians traditionally do on Fridays.
“My mother had just finished preparing lunch when an intensive air raid began close to where my family is staying,” Hijazee said.
Hearing loud cries outside, Hijazee ran on to the street and discovered that the targets were a mere 50 meters from his family’s shelter.
Nearby he found a civilian vehicle destroyed in the attack, the lifeless body of an elderly man and two injured children.
While Hijazee was documenting the aftermath, a second airstrike took place, and the journalist escaped death by seconds.
“I started running, but in my head, I thought my body was lying lifeless on the ground,” he said.
“I pictured myself among the dead or the injured.”
Hijazee returned to get help for the two injured children, but despite assistance from paramedics none of those injured in the incident survived.
“It was very difficult,” he said. “Even after I went home, I started worrying and saying I did not want to lose a leg.”
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants staged a deadly attack in Israel, airstrikes and military operations by Israeli forces have killed more than 20,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including at least 8,000 children, according to the local health ministry.
The assault on the enclave has displaced about 85 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million and left more than 50,000 injured.
The Israeli Defense Forces had ordered Palestinians to relocate south for their “safety,” but a CNN analysis published on Dec. 21 and media reports found that the IDF struck areas it designated as “safe.”
