Source: China News Weekly
After a loud noise, the Al-Ghafri building, the tallest building in Gaza City, collapsed like a house of cards, and billowing ash and smoke soared into the sky with screams of terror.
The time window from the time when the Israeli army issued an emergency evacuation order to the time when the attack occurred was extremely short. Hundreds of families in the building had no time to pack their luggage and could only flee in a hurry. Video footage after the bombing showed residents desperately searching through the rubble for what remained of daily necessities.
After Israeli Defense Minister Katz announced the opening of the "Gates to Hell" in Gaza, many high-rise buildings in Gaza City accused by Israel of being the nest of Hamas were reduced to ruins in recent bombings. When Katz posted a video of military strikes against these residential buildings on social media, he described that "the terrorist building fell into the deep sea" and "the skyline is changing". In words, it seems that this city with a population of one million is just a target to be demolished, a pile of building materials waiting to be bulldozed.
Following the destruction of the Al-Gavri building, under the cover of air force and cannons, the Israeli Defense Army began a new round of ground invasion of Gaza City. As the Israeli army advanced towards the center and west of the city, a seat building was erased from the map. According to local government statistics, about 1,700 high-rise buildings and residential buildings, as well as 1,30,000 tents for displaced persons, were destroyed. This city, which has thousands of years of history and a rare global density of population, seems to be on its way to the end.
Another "city of ruins"
Before invading the center of Gaza City, Israeli forces surrounded the city from three sides, leaving only the exit to the Mediterranean coastal road in the west, allowing civilians to evacuate southward.
Before this round of military offensive, there were nearly 1 million residents and asylum seekers in Gaza City. The statistics of how many people escaped from the city vary greatly. As of September 24, the Israeli military said there were 640,000, while the figure released by the United Nations was 320,000.
The Lasa family, a local reporter in Gaza, was one of many refugees, and told China News Weekly that their communities were empty when they moved south.
After the Israeli security cabinet approved the plan to seize Gaza City in August, Rasha and her husband moved out of their house in the north of Gaza City with their five children and set up tents in the west of the city. The army is approaching step by step from the north and east. If the situation worsens, it will be easier to flee from the west of the city to the south of Gaza.
Lasha's family tent was set up next to the ruins of a building in terrible conditions. The tent is very thin, which cannot stop the heat of summer or the coming winter rain. When I sleep at night, there are only a few thin cushions separating my body and the hard ground, and I can always hear the rustling sound of mice.
During the dark, Israeli drones began to roam low, firing at the crowd of displaced people and throwing bombs onto the roofs of residential buildings. Sometimes, Lassa did not even dare to light candles. In the darkness of suffocation, the children clinged tightly to her mother, as if she was a safe haven, but even Lassa herself was afraid to tremble.
As forced refugees continued to flock from the north and east of the city, the west of the city was crowded day by day. The refugees described to the media that the Israeli army was pushing forward and would send a remote-controlled vehicle carrying explosives into their communities. This robot only left a dozen minutes to escape, and then exploded, destroying everything within a radius of 100 meters.
Before the latest round of offensive began, although most buildings in Gaza City had been damaged, the main structure remained, especially in the city center. Since August, buildings have been extensively destroyed as the army advances from the east and north of the city into the city center. Satellite images showed that Zeitoun community in the southeast and Sheikh Radwan community in the north were almost reduced to ruins.
A New York Times investigation showed that during the siege of Gaza City, Israeli forces first used existing buildings as military bases and then blew them up before advancing. In addition to this "military demolitions", Israel continues to launch air strikes throughout Gaza City. The investigation pointed out that the Israeli military did not implement such a thorough "scorched earth policy" in previous operations in Gaza City. The Israeli military responded that it only targeted sites used by Hamas, underground tunnels and other military targets, and had no policy of fully razing civilian communities.
However, members of Israel's security cabinet, including Katz, have publicly threatened to turn Gaza City into a "city of ruins" like Beit Hanoun and Rafah if Hamas does not lay down its arms and release the remaining hostages.
Earlier this summer, when Israeli national newspaper journalist Yaniv Kubovich visited the northernmost city of Gaza, Bethan, he discovered that the city, which was still inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people a few months ago, is now deserted.
A colonel told Kubovic that the army's efforts in Beit Hanoun were focused on eliminating Palestinian militants, destroying infrastructure and bulldozing buildings. In the officer's view, Beit Hanoun's operation was "fruitful" and it would take "only a few months" to completely defeat Hamas as long as this strategy was replicated throughout Gaza. Some soldiers revealed to Kubovic that they had not attacked Hamas targets recently, and their field mission was mainly to protect the engineering equipment responsible for demolishing buildings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation against Gaza City was aimed at completely clearing Hamas's "last stronghold." However, many Israelis are skeptical of this strategy. Recent polls show that more than 70% of Israelis prefer a ceasefire rather than continuing the war.
There is also opposition within the military and security sectors. Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamil has repeatedly stressed to the Cabinet that it could take years or not at all to completely destroy Hamas. Some former officials have publicly warned that the war has lost strategic significance and is increasingly driven by “extremist targets” with the aim of only destroying Gaza’s infrastructure as much as possible and making the flat ground uninhabitable.
I don't know where I'm going
Neighbors in the neighboring tent asked Lassa whether to stay here or to retreat south? In wartime Gaza, making a decision became painful because these choices were directly related to the safety of the family. Neighbors knew that Lassa was a journalist and kept an eye on the situation, hoping to get more clear information from her.
At the beginning of September, Rasha still hoped that Egypt and Qatar could bring about an agreement between Israel and Hamas to completely end the war. So she comforted her neighbors that the recent offensive was just a psychological tactic, aimed at putting pressure on Hamas to accept Israel's conditions to end the war, and the army should not come to the west of the city.
Deep down, Lasha didn't want to repeat the same mistake. When the war broke out in October 2023, Netanyahu ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south. Rasha's family's house was destroyed by artillery fire and had to join the exile team. They were not able to return home until this year's ceasefire agreement. The south has no relatives, and life has never been stable. In more than a year, they moved home more than a dozen times, sometimes to escape bombings, sometimes to find water, and sometimes to have more privacy. Moreover, the south is already very crowded, and some families in the camp are returning because they cannot find a place to live there.
Lasha also worried that the children's thin bodies might not be able to withstand the wandering life. Like most Gaza City residents, Rasha and her children face malnutrition. They are always weak, their joints ache, and a small wound left by doing housework is difficult to heal for a long time.
On September 9, Israel launched an air strike, claiming to be a "precision strike" against the Hamas leadership in Doha. Five Palestinians and one Qatari security force member were killed in the attack. The cross-border attack caused chaos and uneasiness in the camp. "Would that leave us in a worse position than we are now?" The neighbor asked anxiously. "We have no choice but to endure it." Lasha's remaining glimmer of hope for a ceasefire has been dashed. Before leaving, the neighbor murmured, "Death is kinder than living like this."
In mid-September, a bomb exploded near the tent district. The bullets hit Lasa’s six-year-old daughter’s nose, the blood continued to flow out, and the husband drove his daughter to Shifa Hospital. This hospital was once the largest medical center in Gaza, but after several bombings and raids, now only a few ruined buildings have remained operational, filled with people injured in the bombing.
According to the Washington Post, during the November 2023 and March 2024 raids, the Israeli military not only destroyed hospital facilities, but also detained medical personnel.
In the overloaded Shifa Hospital, Lassa's husband waited for four hours to finally see the doctor, but the doctor said the wound needed to be sewn, and the medical supplies had been alerted, and the patient had to go to the pharmacy to buy a curtains, sewing lines and slides.
“We’ve been insisting on staying in the city before, but now even the biggest hospitals in Gaza can’t get basic medical supplies like sewing lines and slides, what if I and my family get serious injuries?” said Lassa, who realized it was impossible to stay in Gaza.
There was no smoke in the streets of the Lhasa family. Over the course of the day, Israel warned residents of evacuation leaflets fell like a rainy spot, and many families packed their bags to escape. Lhasa dragged the children into a nearby abandoned house. Israel’s drones were constantly rolling over the sky, and Lhasa did not let the children sound or play outside.
On September 16, the afternoon of the ground invasion began, when the heat subsided slightly, she and her husband embarked on a journey south with their five children.
Most of their homes were sold at low prices in August, with only a few blankets and mattresses, as well as an outdated tent. They wanted to find a car, but the gunfire was too fierce, and drivers did not dare to go to the west of Gaza City. Even finding a car price was hopeful, and now it costs at least $1500 to take the whole family to the south to escape, compared to just $50 before the war.
Connecting Gaza’s north-south main beachfront on both sides of Rashid Street with ruins and debris. Mothers hugged the children, the elderly helped by friends, and the children walked forward on burdens. A car filled with mattresses and furniture was stuck in the crowd. Most people don’t know where they’re going, just blindly now.
Lasha's family walked for seven hours. Every hour they walked, they would take a short rest, eat some cookies and drink water. In this way, they walked 15 kilometers and arrived at Nuserat in central Gaza, where the sound of Israeli air strikes sounded much farther away.
They looked everywhere for open spaces to set up tents to rest, but all the shelters were already full. In desperation, they had to set up a tent next to a small road near the shelter.
"I found myself living like a tramp on the street, with cars passing by a few meters away, and the exhaust fumes choking. But I couldn't care about it anymore. I just wanted to get a good night's sleep," Rasha wrote in her diary. She didn't think for the time being about when the violent Israeli offensive would reach the area, but it was almost inevitable if the ceasefire agreement was not finalized as soon as possible.
With the escalation of the conflict in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who faces war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court, is becoming increasingly isolated in the international community.
Faced with an empty delegate seat, Netanyahu delivered a tough speech. In response to the recent "wave of recognition" of the Palestinian state, he attacked it as a "shameful decision" that would "encourage terrorism." He also firmly stated that Israel would continue its actions in Gaza."Western leaders may have succumbed to pressure, but I assure you that Israel will not."
Before the speech, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to set up speakers on the Gaza border to broadcast his speech to the people of Gaza. He also claimed that Israeli intelligence agencies had hacked into the cell phone systems of Hamas members and Gaza residents to broadcast his speech live.
"He's lying." Lasha told China News Weekly that this scene did not happen.
Reporter: Chen Jialin