Finding Refuge in Gaza City and the Transformation of Gaza’s Yarmouk Stadium
Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine — Throughout 2024, a large number of families in the Beit Lahia area of the northern Gaza Strip were forcibly displaced under fire by the Israeli army. Many arrived in Gaza City with nowhere to settle and little or no possessions.
Several displaced Palestinian women, some staying at a converted Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, shared their stories with Unicorn Riot. For more from Palestine, see our trove of coverage here.
Walking amongst hundreds of other Palestinians in Gaza City with her belongings in a bag on top of her head, Umm Mahmoud Al Masry said, “The Israeli occupation army expelled us from the schools. They kicked us out of our houses as well. They blew up the house with everything in it.” Israeli forces “took turns” beating the men in the village as they fled south from Beit Lahia, she said.
Close by, sitting in the street with others, Nahed Abdel Ghafour told Unicorn Riot that her family “fled the war from Almusarwaa neighborhood because we were afraid our children would be arrested. Yet, they arrested them and even took our belongings. And they destroyed the houses. The soldiers arrested our husbands too.”
During their exodus, many said they saw dead and wounded Palestinians on the ground with no one to help them. “There is no civil defense or ambulances and there is not medical services,” said Israa Juma. She was forced to flee her home as quadcopters relayed audio messages to the population saying, “Get out! You are in a dangerous combat zone. If you stay, you will be considered terrorists.”
“A whole block was leveled over the heads of its residents! A massacre beyond imagination.”
Israa Juma, displaced Palestinian from Gaza
Finding refuge in Gaza City, many families sheltered in Gaza City’s Yarmouk Stadium, one of the largest and oldest football (soccer) stadiums in Gaza.
Not long after the invasion of Gaza in December 2023, Israeli forces occupied the stadium and converted it into a large “interrogation and torture camp” where hundreds of Palestinians were kidnapped, stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and often executed.
In early January 2024, Israeli forces withdrew and destroyed large portions of the stadium. Yarmouk was among six other major stadiums, 45 sports clubs and 273 sports facilities destroyed by Israel during the war. At least 708 athletes, including 95 children, have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, including 369 football players, according to the Palestinian Sports Media Association.
Palestinians then fixed up what they could and converted the remains of Yarmouk Stadium into a shelter. Tents were set up inside the stadium quickly, providing shelter to thousands of displaced families, mostly former residents of the Jabalia refugee camp.
Rami Jrosh, a caretaker of the stadium, said that 35 families were housed there to begin with, but that by late summer, that number swelled so much that 10 families were sharing one tent.
Staying in a tent in the stadium, Umm Raed Wadi spoke about her son getting shot in the leg while fleeing and how they were struggling to find anywhere to dress the wound. She said he still bleeds “like water pouring out.” As her family fled, she said Israeli “tanks aimed at us wherever we moved.”
Elder Aisha Mohammed Abdel Rabo Aub Sultan told Unicorn Riot that life at Yarmouk Stadium was good, but tough with no money, “no food, no water and no bathrooms.” She said people don’t feel safe leaving based on what they’ve experienced and asked God to “spare everyone from seeing what these people have endured.”
Israel’s 15-month-long war on Gaza forcibly displaced around 90% of the Palestinian population and killed at least 61,000 in the besieged Mediterranean enclave — an updated number from the Gaza Government Media Office that includes over 10,000 missing who are now presumed dead.
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