Mansour Shouman said he used to hear Israel airstrikes in Gaza roughly every hour but those bombardments now come every few minutes as the Israel-Hamas war escalates.
The 39-year-old Canadian who has been living in Gaza said Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian territory has grown relentless recently, and even locations where civilians were previously advised to take refuge are not safe.
"It's still going ... Every few minutes," he said of the airstrikes during a video call Monday as the sound of explosions could be heard in the background.
"Gaza is a very congested place so everything you can think of has been hit."
Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza and said it has stepped up airstrikes in order to reduce the risk to troops in the next stages.
Shouman – who was born in Gaza, later moved to Calgary and then moved with his family back to Gaza in 2006 – said he narrowly escaped an airstrike on Monday morning near a hospital complex where he has been taking shelter.
"At the entrance of the hospital a bomb fell," he said while sitting under a tent in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, pointing at the entrance metres away from him.
Shouman said people he knew at the hospital had lost loved ones in recent days and many around him lacked essential supplies.
"I have here a couple of colleagues whose homes were bombed," he said. "They went and put (their family) in the graves and came back to work."
Small shipments of aid – which the UN has said were a small fraction of the usual supplies Gaza receives – were twice allowed into Gaza over the weekend and once on Monday but have barely made a dent in the massive need for essentials, Shouman said.
"People are malnourished," he said. "How can it get it better? There is no replenishment of stuff."
Israel has still not allowed any fuel to enter Gaza, where there has been a power blackout for nearly two weeks since Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities.
Hamas has said the attack was retribution for worsening conditions Palestinians face.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops near Gaza to keep preparing for an offensive "because it will come.'' He said it will be a combined offensive from air, land and sea but did not give a timeframe.
A ground excursion is likely to dramatically increase casualties in what is already the deadliest by far of five wars fought between Israel and Hamas in less than 15 years.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed – mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. At least 222 people were captured and taken to Gaza, including foreigners, the military said Monday, updating a previous figure.
More than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, have been killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday. That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.
Canadian officials are still working to try and find a way to get upwards of 400 Canadians and their families out of the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded at its two land borders with Israel and Egypt.
In Gaza, Shouman said he hasn't heard from the Canadian embassy in days. He said his family is taking shelter elsewhere while he tries to help at the hospital complex.
He said he was angry at the suffering he was seeing and wanted to raise awareness of the humanitarian toll the war is taking.
"I'm channeling all my anger into action," Shouman said, just before the Muslim call to prayer could be heard from a nearby mosque and he went to pray. "Trying to help in any way I can."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2023.
Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
