GAZA, (PIC)
In the heavy hours of the night, residents of al-Shati camp west of Gaza City woke up to Israeli warnings to evacuate a house inside the overcrowded camp, before violent explosions shook the area minutes later, following the targeting of a residential house in the middle of the camp by Israeli occupation aircraft, in a bombing whose sound was heard in the central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip.
The bombing brought back to the minds of the residents scenes of the war that the Strip has lived through for more than two years, to open a new wave of displacement for dozens of families who left their homes under the impact of fear and destruction, despite the validity of what is known as the ceasefire agreement. The bombing targeted a house belonging to the al-Adam family, which caused a state of panic among the residents, especially after neighboring houses were damaged and glass and stones were scattered in the narrow alleys of the camp, while families were forced to flee within minutes without being able to carry their belongings or even their identification papers.
According to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, the bombing resulted in the injury of nine citizens, including a child, in addition to extensive damage to surrounding houses, while limited fires broke out that Civil Defense crews dealt with, despite facing difficulty in reaching the place due to narrow streets and population overcrowding.
We left with nothing
Abu Saed, a resident of the area who was forced to leave his home following the bombing, described the first moments of the attack as terrifying and harsh, saying it brought back to mind scenes of the war whose horror has not left people’s memory.
He explained, in his talk to the PIC, that the first missile fired by warplanes at the house did not explode, before another plane targeted it with a second missile that caused a massive explosion that caused widespread destruction in the targeted house and surrounding houses.
He added, “People started screaming in the streets, I carried my children and we left with nothing, even the identification papers remained inside the house.” He pointed out that many families spent the night hours in the open near the sea beach, before some of them were able to head to overcrowded schools or relatives’ homes in other areas of Gaza City.
As for Umm Ahmad, a mother of five children who was displaced from the vicinity of the targeted house, she said that her children are still living in a state of shock and extreme fear.
She added to the PIC, “Since the beginning of the war we have been living in displacement and fear. We thought the war had ended after the ceasefire agreement, but what is happening on the ground says otherwise.”
She stressed that there are no safe places in the Gaza Strip, noting that the school she took refuge in was very crowded, and lacked the minimum requirements of life, from mattresses, water, and basic services, adding, “People are living on top of each other.” In one of the corridors of a school housing displaced people west of Gaza, dozens of children sat next to their mothers in extremely difficult humanitarian conditions, while some families tried to set up light covers inside the crowded classrooms to provide a limited amount of privacy.
Continuous violations of the calm agreement
The recent escalation in al-Shati camp comes in light of the continuation of the Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, which entered into force about seven months ago, amid accusations against Israel of not committing to its field, political, and humanitarian clauses.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the number of martyrs who fell as a result of violations since the beginning of the agreement in October 2025 has risen to about 850 martyrs, in addition to more than 2,433 injuries, most of them civilians, and the majority of them women and children.
The Ministry also announced that the total number of martyrs of the war exceeded 72,000 martyrs, while the number of wounded rose to more than 172,000 injured, at a time when hundreds of bodies are still under the rubble or in areas difficult to reach due to the continuation of military operations and repeated bombing. Medical sources confirmed that hospitals in the Strip are operating with very limited capabilities, as a result of the acute shortage of medicines, medical supplies, and fuel, along with severe overcrowding in emergency and reception departments.
Repeated displacement and a worsening humanitarian crisis
The western areas of Gaza City, including al-Shati camp, are witnessing a high population density after the displacement of thousands of families from the eastern and northern areas that were subjected to widespread destruction during the war, while the Israel occupation army prevents many from returning to their areas under the pretext that they are located behind what is known as the Yellow Line.
Shelter centers have become unable to absorb more displaced people, in light of the lack of food, water, and basic materials, while thousands of families depend on limited humanitarian aid that arrives intermittently.
UN reports reflect a harsh image of the reality of shelter centers and displacement camps in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in conditions described by the United Nations as catastrophic and inhuman, amid acute overcrowding and an almost complete collapse of health and environmental services, and the continuation of waves of displacement as a result of repeated bombing and continuous Israeli violations.
According to the latest reports from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the majority of the Gaza Strip residents are still displaced and living inside overcrowded shelters or temporary shelter sites that lack the minimum requirements for life, with rising health risks and the spread of diseases related to water pollution, waste accumulation, and the collapse of sewage networks. In a report issued on May 7, 2026, OCHA confirmed that residents in Gaza are exposed daily to deteriorating living conditions inside shelter places, noting that most of the displaced are living in worn-out tents or crowded schools, while Israeli raids and gunfire continue in different areas of the Strip, which pushes more families into repeated displacement.
For its part, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that extreme overcrowding inside camps and shelter centers has led to the spread of skin and respiratory diseases, in addition to the spread of rodents and insects inside the tents.
The agency said that children are being exposed to rat bites while sleeping inside tents, in light of the absence of clean water and the deterioration of sanitation systems.
With every new night of bombing, the map of displacement expands more, while the lives of Palestinians narrow in the Gaza Strip, which seems entirely exhausted and searching for a real truce measured by the ability of people to sleep without fear, and to stay alive inside what remains of their homes or tents and their crowded shelter centers.