New Delhi:

Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh – who 24 hours ago mourned the death of his wife, son, daughter and nine other family members in an Israeli air strike – has vowed to continue reporting on Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza. Mr Dahdouh told state-run Turkish news agency Anadolu, “This will never silence our voices. Journalism is my noble mission.” “Israel is targeting civilians and committing massacres against families. This is part of what Palestinian families living in Gaza go through every day,” Mr Dahdouh said.

Mr Dahdouh, who is Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, was told his wife and children had been killed shortly after a live broadcast from the besieged enclave on Thursday.

Hours later Al Jazeera aired visuals from the morgue in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Palestine’s Deir el-Balah, where a grief-stricken Wael Al Dahdouh cradled the body of his seven-year-old daughter and cried over those of his wife and 15-year-old son.

READ | “In Gaza, No Safe Place”: Girl’s Plea Before Mother Dies In Israeli Strike

Mr Dahdouh’s two older children – Mahmoud and his sister Kholoud – are believed to have survived the attack. Days earlier they had shared a video message to the global community, highlighting the utter devastation in Gaza and pleading for help.

“Help us to stay alive” was their outcry to the world from Gaza.

Mahmoud, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Wael Dahdouh son, joined by his sister Kholoud, sent a message to the world, days before Mahmoud, his mother, and younger sister Sham were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza pic.twitter.com/HWJ8SjIpvx

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023

“Whole neighbourhoods have been destroyed,” Kholoud says in a video that shows residential buildings reduced to rubble and entire streets covered in that debris.

“In Gaza there is no safe place…”

READ | Why Israel Is Attacking South Gaza After Telling Civilians To Go There

The Dahdouh family was among a million civilians ordered by Israel to flee from north Gaza ahead of strikes that targeted residential neighbourhoods, as well as schools, mosques and hospitals. Israel also temporarily rolled tanks into north Gaza – the first step in its widely anticipated ground offensive.

READ | Israeli Tanks Enter North Gaza In “Targeted” Overnight Raid, Retreat Later

The family was sheltering in the United Nations-recognised Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which was called a “safe area” by Israeli forces.

The family of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh has been killed in an Israeli attack at the Al Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, where they had forcibly evacuated to shelter from Israeli bombardments pic.twitter.com/ya64Lgunbp

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023

Despite the loss – shared by tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children from Gaza, Israel and other nationalities caught up in this bloody war – Mr Dahdough insisted to Anadolu he will continue covering Israel’s strikes on Palestinians.

Tel Aviv’s attacks on Gaza follows the October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that claimed over 1,400 lives, including civilians and children. Israel has described the Hamas terrorists as “animals” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised revenge.

Nearly 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict – the bloodiest of the five wars between Israel and Gaza so far. The dead include more than 6,500 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis, as well as foreign nationalities.

Tel Aviv has allowed small aid convoys to enter Gaza, a heavily blockaded strip of land home to over two million people, but it is only a fraction of basic supplies needed.

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Hamas on Friday rejected an Israeli order to evacuate 1.1 million civilians south from northern Gaza within 24 hours, ahead of an expected ground incursion that will likely turn the overcrowded Palestinian territory into one of the world’s bloodiest war zones.

“Our people reject the threat of the occupation (by Israeli) leaders and (the) call to flee to the south or Egypt,” the group said. “We are steadfast on our land and in our homes and our cities. There will be no displacement.”

However, the demand to move over a million people at short notice, during a war, has been criticised by the United Nations, which warned Israel of “devastating consequences”. “… impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” the UN said.

READ | Israel Asks Gaza City Civilians To Evacuate, UN Calls Order “Impossible”

The big (and very obvious) concern for aid agencies is – where? And how do you move 1.1 million men, women and children, as well as injured and infirm, while being bombarded by Israeli forces?

Israel has already indicated its willingness to inflict collateral damage, including killing civilians.

READ | “There Will Be Collateral Damage…”: Ex-Israel PM’s Warning To Hamas

The Gaza Strip

Gaza is 41 km long and between six and 12 km wide. It is divided into five areas – North Gaza, Gaza, the Middle Area, Khan Younis, and Rafah. The Strip has two land borders – Israel on its north and east, and Egypt on its south. Both are closed. To its west is the Mediterranean Sea, also closed.

Gazan airspace is controlled by Israel; their airport was destroyed by the Israelis in 2022.

It is, therefore, completely cut off from the world; the narrow 365 sq km patch of land, which is among the most densely populated on the world, relies (almost) entirely on Israel for food, fuel, medicines, drinking water and other essentials, and, to a lesser extent, on international aid agencies.

Israel’s Demand

Israel has demanded 1.1 million Gazans move from North Gaza to southern areas, potentially a 40 km journey in 24 hours, and as far down as Rafah and the border with Egypt.

There are two main entry/exit points on Gaza’s land border through which people are allowed – the Erez Crossing in the north that is controlled by Israel, and the Rafah Crossing controlled by Egypt.

Both have been closed to Gazans looking to flee the fighting. There is a third crossing – Kerem Shalom – which is controlled by Israel also but is normally only used to move goods.

The Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing was bombed even as civilians were looking to flee, raising questions over how serious Israel is about not deliberately targeting non-combatants.

Evacuation Options

There are none, for now.

Israel has already ruled out opening Gazan airspace or allowing aid agencies access via land or sea routes, and with the border crossings controlled by Israeli military, the Gazans are penned in.

READ | Israel Asks Gaza Residents To Flee War Against Hamas, Where’s The Exit?

One (perhaps the only) option are humanitarian corridors to allow civilians an escape route.

Israel has shown no indication it will permit this on its side, which leaves only Egypt. Cairo has so far rejected any move to set up such corridors, security sources in that country said Wednesday.

One of the sources, who asked not to be identified, said this was to “protect the right of Palestinians to hold on to their cause and their land”. Egypt has long restricted Gazans access to its territory.

The Israel – Hamas War

Israel’s expected ground attacks will follow a week of relentless aerial strikes, which have killed over 1,500 people so far, as Tel Aviv extracts revenge for Hamas killing more than 1,200 on October 7.

That those ground attacks are moving closer was reinforced this afternoon after an NDTV exclusive ground report showed tanks and armoured vehicles massing at the Gaza border.

READ | Ground Report: Israeli Tanks Roll Up To Border As Gazans Asked To Move South

These include Namer Infantry Fighting Vehicles, the most heavily armoured in the world, and Merkava IV tanks that have defence systems that can destroy incoming anti-tank missiles.