ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Gaza health officials announced today that the death toll of Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza has crossed 40,000. For the approximately 2 million people still living there, the United Nations says a majority have been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, forced to be displaced many times. NPR Hadeel Al-Shalchi reports on what that's like for one family and why it keeps happening.
MAHMOUD AL-DEBES: (Non-English language spoken).
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Mahmoud al-Debes lists all the towns and cities he's been displaced to in Gaza since the beginning of the war in October.
M AL-DEBES: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: With his wife, Hanadi, and five children, 34-year-old Debes says they've had to find shelter 15 times.
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AL-SHALCHI: After Israeli strikes on Khan Younis this week, they evacuated to finally arrive here, the side of a major road called Salah al-Din in central Gaza, where they set up blankets as a tent and slept for the night. Debes says that constant moving has ruined their lives. They now beg for money, drink dirty water. They walk barefoot. Their bodies are ridden with scabies, he says.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: NPR producer Anas Baba in Gaza asks Debes, what is life like being displaced all the time?
M AL-DEBES: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "A life of displacement is death on earth," Debes answers. Debes' wife, Hanadi, says the marching from one place to another has made her desperate.
HANADI AL-DEBES: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "I wish death for me, my children and my husband, so we can just end this life," she says. The Debes family is among thousands of Palestinians who find themselves in an endless loop of displacement. Since Israel launched its assault on Hamas following the militants' deadly attack on October 7, the Israeli military has repeatedly ordered civilians to move to places they call humanitarian zones, where Palestinians sometimes find shelter in places like schools. Sometimes those very shelters become targets. Israel says Hamas is basing itself in those schools, and the military has struck dozens of them in recent weeks. The Israeli military says it tries to avoid civilian casualties. Gaza's first responders say many women and children are killed. So how is a family supposed to decide when a shelter is no longer safe? Debes says you sometimes only know when it's too late.
M AL-DEBES: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "A woman collected parts of her children in a bucket after a strike," Debes says. "When I saw that, I knew it was time to go."
Colin Clarke researches terrorism and international security at the U.S.-based Soufan Group. He says what we're seeing in Gaza today is an insurgency-counterinsurgency. Hamas, which was once a strong ruling force, has been decimated to localized groups of guerrilla fighters. The Israeli military, or IDF, battles those fighters by evacuating thousands of Palestinian civilians and returning to areas they say Hamas has regrouped in. Clarke says a counterinsurgency is made up of three parts.
COLIN CLARKE: Clear, which is what the IDF is very good at, then there's the hold piece. They have to hold the territory, and then there's build.
AL-SHALCHI: Clarke says the war could last years since Israel has not implemented a plan for the build phase with a transition of governance from Hamas to another entity.
CLARKE: They're essentially fighting a counterinsurgency with counterterrorism objectives. All they talk about is eradicating Hamas with very little explanation for what the day after looks like in Gaza.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We will fight until we achieve victory.
AL-SHALCHI: Eradicating Hamas' military and political capabilities is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defines as victory. He says when that happens, the war will end. But several in Israel's security establishment question that goal, including Israel Ziv, a former Israeli commander in Gaza. He says that the Israeli army today has achieved what it needs militarily in terms of fighting Hamas, and a cease-fire could be called.
ISRAEL ZIV: We've brought them back 30 years, in terms of destroying their infrastructure, eliminating their command and control people, their industry.
AL-SHALCHI: There are efforts to reach a cease-fire in a new round of talks that begin in Qatar today. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said there were no more valid excuses for either side not to agree to a deal.
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AL-SHALCHI: In Gaza, on the side of the Salah al-Din Road, Mahmoud al-Debes says he's skeptical about the talks, but he did have a message for Hamas.
M AL-DEBES: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "Just give some concessions on the Israeli hostages," he says. "For God's sake, let's get back to a safe life." With Anas Baba in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, I'm Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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