Destruction everywhere. This is the description of the situation in Gaza given by some of the 41 people with Spanish citizenship who began leaving the Strip this Monday towards Egypt, from where they will be evacuated to Spain.
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"We were very bad, there was no gas, water or food, the food that is left is getting worse and there are bombings everywhere," said Amelia Julia Sayans, a 70-year-old Spaniard married to a Gazan who managed to cross the pass this morning. Rafah border crossing, which connects the Strip with the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.
Like hundreds of thousands of others, Sayans and her family were displaced in the city of Khan Younis after they fled the northern city of Beit Hanoun, which was "totally destroyed" by Israeli bombing. Her family home was left "one hundred percent" in rubble.
This elderly woman crossed without her Palestinian husband: "I have been after him to come with me and I couldn't convince him. He wants to stay and wait to collect what is in the rubble" from her house in the north, where Israeli forces were taking control and urge that the civilian population remaining in the area move south.
Sayans left alone and could not leave with her children, who are still sheltering in the apartment of a family that welcomed them in Khan Yunis.
They sought to leave together but were not included today in the list of 500 foreigners or people with dual citizenship prepared by the Gaza General Authority of Crossings and Borders, through which Hamas coordinates with Egypt for the evacuation of people.
People with a Spanish passport leave from today in groups of up to 40 people. Sayans hopes that her children can leave tomorrow. So far, however, they are still waiting.
"We wake up at night when they shoot or bomb, the food is very bad, you found less and less. The water had to be searched, we had to carry drums, but it is not in good condition, it is not hygienic, it is like water sea, salty," Sayans said, adding that she hopes that when the war is over she will be able to return to be with her husband.
Kamal Ukasha, a fifty-year-old Palestinian ophthalmologist with Spanish citizenship, was leaving with his wife and his six children to start a new life in Spain, where he already has two other daughters.
"We will look for a place to work in Spain," he said with some hope of getting out of the "total destruction" that was left in the Strip. "The war has been extremely difficult for everyone," he mentioned, emphasizing that Israeli bombing destroyed her clinic in Gaza City.
"I had a private medical center and it was completely destroyed at the beginning of the war. Everything is destroyed on the way from Jabalia to Gaza City. There is no safe place in Gaza," this doctor said.
"They killed older people, children, the elderly, all animals, the destruction is total," he lamented along with her family shortly before crossing into Egypt and leaving the Strip with no prospect of knowing when she will return.
"It is an unimaginable situation that is not even seen in horror movies. The world has forgotten Gaza," lamented Salah el Sousi, a 73-year-old man who also lived through the 2014 war. Since October 7, the Israeli army bombings have killed over 11,100 Palestinians.