“Wiped off the map.” The extent of the destruction shocks those returning to Jabalia News

In the unrecognizable streets of Jabalia, residents displaced by the ongoing Israeli war return, amid the ruins of this camp located in the northern Gaza Strip, “shocked” to see a place that has been “wiped off the map.”

Muhammad al-Najjar (33 years old) from Jabalia Camp says, “I was surprised by the extent of the destruction caused by the recent aggression on Jabalia Camp. There are no landmarks on the floor. They are all intertwined and made up of rubble. There are no streets (…) as if an earthquake occurred, it is all revenge against the people.”

He added, “There are no necessities for life in Jabalia. There is no water, no roads, and no services. Even the hospitals were vandalized and the generators they operate on were destroyed in Kamal Adwan.”

In recent weeks, the Israeli army has carried out heavy bombing operations in this area of ​​the Gaza Strip.

In recent days, Agence France-Presse correspondents saw the influx of a large number of Palestinians to this camp located in the northern Gaza Strip, which Israel imposes a strict siege on, in an attempt to find their homes and save what could be saved.

Men, women and children were walking in the middle of a street strewn with the ruins of destroyed buildings. Some families placed mattresses and cardboard on donkey carts, while others carried their supplies on their shoulders.

But despite the widespread destruction, Muhammad al-Najjar says residents are “insisting” on returning to their homes.

He explains, “People are determined to return to their homes and set up tents and arbours over the rubble and restore life to Jabalia. There is a fear that the occupation will return a second or third time, but we will remain in our land and will not leave it.”

Since October 7, Israel has launched a devastating aggression against the Gaza Strip, accompanied by ground operations, causing the death of 36,379 martyrs, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Live in peace

Last month, the Israeli army said that the fighting in Jabalia was “perhaps the fiercest” since the war began.

The bodies of 7 prisoners detained in the area were found last May. The fighting renewed when the Israeli army took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

On Friday, the Israeli army announced that its soldiers had “completed their mission” in eastern Jabalia.

For his part, Muhammad al-Najjar confirms that he still hears the sounds of gunshots and artillery fire in the east, saying, “We hear artillery shelling and bullets fired from the east of Jabalia all the time. People will remain in the camp.”

In turn, Mahmoud Asalia (50 years old) from Jabalia says, “I have never seen the extent of the destruction in Jabalia before. It is the destruction and blowing up of entire houses in residential blocks. In the Jabalia area, every house was either burned or bombed with artillery, tanks, and aircraft missiles, or was blown up. There is no Beit Ella was bombed by the Israeli occupation army.”

He added, “We returned home and saw it as a structure of broken and destroyed cement columns… Despite all this, we will remain in Jabalia.”

He continues, “The battles between the resistance and the army were violent, and the army was harmed, and this prompted it to take revenge on unarmed homes and people. We will not leave Jabalia, no matter what the Israeli occupation does.”

For her part, Suad Abu Salah (47 years old) from Jabalia camp says, “We are tired of displacement after displacement. The war has destroyed our lives and the lives of our children. Enough bombing, beatings, and death (…) Jabalia has been wiped off the map.”

She concludes, “We want to live like people in the world. We need a solution, stop the war, and live in peace.”