ガザ集合住宅空爆、ＳＭＳで事前告知　情報アクセスできない人も

【ハンユニス（パレスチナ自治区）ＡＦＰ＝時事】パレスチナ自治区ガザで２日、カタールの援助で建てられた複合型集合住宅がイスラエル軍の攻撃を受けた。カタールが仲介交渉に尽力した戦闘休止合意は１日に失効した。（写真は、イスラエル軍の攻撃を受けたパレスチナ自治区ハンユニスの集合住宅「ハマドタウン」と避難した住民）
　モスク（イスラム礼拝所）や店舗、庭園などが入る複合型集合住宅「ハマドシティーは、ハンユニスで２０１６年に完成した。施設内の１０００戸以上が、２年前のイスラエルとハマスの戦闘で自宅に被害を受けたパレスチナ人に提供されていた。
　イスラエル軍は２日正午頃、同地区の住民に向けて「即時」避難を促すショートメッセージ（ＳＭＳ）を送信した。民間人の犠牲を最小限にするための試みだとしている。
　空爆はメッセージ送信から約１時間後に実施された。２分間で５回の爆撃があった。
　イスラエル軍はガザ地区を２３００の「小さな区域」に分け、「ハマス壊滅」を理由に攻撃を実施する際に、目標の区域の住民に避難を促すＳＭＳを送信している。
　ショートメッセージについて、国連人道問題調整事務所（ＯＣＨＡ）は、警告のメッセージを受信できても具体的な避難先が示されていないと指摘する。
　ある４０代の男性公務員は「インターネット、電気へのアクセスはなく、情報収集のためのラジオさえ持っていない」とし、また「（区域の）地図を見たことはない」と訴えた。
　ＯＣＨＡによるとガザで最も脆弱（ぜいじゃく）な立場に置かれているのは、推定１７０万人の避難民だという。避難民の多くは電話を利用できず、空から投下されるビラで情報を得るしかないのが現状だ。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/12/04-16:39）

At almost exactly the same time Israeli negotiators pulled out of deadlocked truce talks in Qatar on Saturday, Israeli jets sent a prestige Doha-funded housing development in the Gaza Strip up in smoke.
Hamad City is named for the former emir of the Gulf petro-state, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who laid the foundation stone on a visit 11 years ago.
Inaugurated in 2016, it was still among the newest projects in the Gaza Strip, the housing complex in the city of Khan Yunis boasting an impressive mosque, shops and gardens.
The first flats -- more than 1,000 of them -- were provided to Palestinians whose homes were destroyed in the war between Israel and Hamas two years earlier.
On Saturday it happened again, a day after a Qatar-brokered pause in the current war between Israel and Hamas expired.
First their phones pinged around noon with an immediate evacuation order SMS sent by the Israeli army, which says the system is aimed at minimising civilian casualties.
Around an hour later, five Israeli air strikes rained down on the neighbourhood in the space of just two minutes.
Bombs slammed into the pale apartment blocks one by one, reducing them largely to rubble and sending a huge pall of black smoke into the sky, as people fled and cries of 'help!' and 'ambulance!' rang out.
At least we got through it, 26-year-old Nader Abu Warda told AFP, amazed he was still alive.
- No phones -
The Israeli military has divided the Gaza Strip into 2,300 blocs and is now sending SMS messages to residents telling them to leave before they launch the strikes which they say will eliminate Hamas.
Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, died in the Islamist movement's October 7 assault on southern Israel and some 240 were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
The Hamas-led Gaza Strip government says Israel's campaign has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, since it was launched eight weeks ago.
The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, has highlighted that the warning messages do not indicate where the recipients should go.
Ibrahim al-Jamal, a civil servant in his 40s, said he does not have any internet, any electricity or even a radio to receive information and that he has never seen this map setting out the different blocs.
Many people in Gaza have never heard of it and it wouldn't matter anyway as the bombings are taking place everywhere, he said.
Humanitarian bodies say the most vulnerable in Gaza are the estimated 1.7 million displaced people.
Many of them do not have access to phones and have to rely on warning leaflets dropped by planes, not visible from inside an apartment.
- 'Go where?' -
According to the Gaza Strip's Civil Defence emergency and rescue organisation, in recent weeks hundreds of displaced families had been taking refuge in 3,000 apartments at Hamad City.
Mohammed Foura, 21, already displaced once from Gaza City, told AFP that half an hour before the strike he had been warned by other residents to flee.
They shouted get out, get out, he said, as families piled their belongings into cars or carried them away in enormous bundles.
Nader Abu Warda fled Jabalia, near Gaza City, at the start of the war and no longer knows which way to go or what to do.
He, his wife and three children had been staying in a friend's apartment in the complex.
They told us 'Gaza City is a war zone', now it's Khan Yunis, he said. Yesterday, they were saying 'evacuate the east of Khan Yunis'. Today, they say 'evacuate the west', he added, visibly exasperated.
Where are we going now, into the sea? Where are we going to put our children to bed?