@AkomoCombine I was just about to ask about this because I read 2 million with half of them being children.
I wondered if numbers were inflated and I wondered why they wouldn’t get their children out of there when warned if safety is only 20 miles away.
This is an info graph from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), updated September 2023.
There are 2.2 million, give or take. This info graph focuses on poverty & mobility. Other UN data measures the population as 40% under 15, around 50% under 19.
Video & on-the-ground reports show civilians terrified because they don't know if IDF can be trusted. There *are* civilians hit while evacuating. None of this is as easy as it looks.
@MLClark @AkomoCombine thanks for clarification. I understand being terrified. I just know if it were me, I’d walk the six hours, if I had to. They had to have known this was coming, given what happened on the 7th. But you raise important points about not trusting the IDF. I imagine there is also shock and difficulty getting people who are elderly and disabled out. How much time was there between the attack and the warning? And how much time was there to leave? And what agencies help?
Originally, there was a 24-hour evac warning for 1.1m people in the north. After 70 civilians were killed on a corridor IDF had called safe, people got *scared* and didn't know who to trust.
Hospitals also immediately warned that they wouldn't be able to move many patients, and would be sheltering in place.
Today, there was a report of around 130 preemie babies across Gaza, and only 6 neonatal units. So, some evac is *really* tough. Civilians will keep dying in this.
Above all else, I think we can just thank our stars that we're not in a position where we have to make such a decision ourselves. I know whenever I've turned on the taps or had a hot shower these last two weeks, I've been thinking *hard* about how much comfort we take for granted.
You both have good hearts to be so frustrated.
*None* of us wants civilians to die while every effort is made to stop the perpetrators of terrorist actions.
We're all doing the best we can.
I so appreciate your ability to name what you're moving through, Holon.
It's an affirming practice, and one (for me, at least) strengthened by the knowledge that we're not doing it alone.
no, we're a multitude 🤨🤣🤣🤣
@MLClark
i find myself doing that too. gratitude+guilt. the current combo.