In the town of Bani Suhaila, east of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian families live among the rubble of their destroyed homes, struggling to survive the tragic conditions left by the Israeli war machine.
Amid the harsh living conditions in this border town, which is exposed to artillery shelling from time to time, and amid the hardships of life resulting from the war, families there are taking the rubble of their homes as a new shelter.
Some families set up tents on the rubble of homes, while others reclaimed parts of their destroyed homes to live in them.
People there are trying to live out the details of life in light of the tragic circumstances, as some families spread their washed clothes on the rubble of their homes.
One of these families also washed his child’s body with water, inside what was left of the bathroom in his destroyed house.
These families found no shelter except the rubble of their destroyed homes, after they were displaced from the city of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, following the Israeli army’s announcement of the start of its ground operation there on the sixth of last May.
These families had fled their homes in Khan Yunis due to repeated targeting, heading to the city of Rafah.
Devastated area
Palestinian Umm Fawzi (she did not reveal her full name) said that the Israeli war machine destroyed everything in its path in the town of Bani Suhaila.
She added: “The army did not leave any sign of life in this town, destroying homes and killing people and birds.”
Umm Fawzi explained that her destroyed house had housed about 7 families before she was displaced.
She continued, saying: “We fled from the house due to the intensity of the fire in the area, all the way to Rafah, which was classified at the time as a safe area.”
But when the ground operation began in the city, the family returned to their home to be shocked by its complete destruction, she said.
She pointed out that they are currently living among the rubble of their house and in a state of “fear and terror” about the possibility of renewed Israeli bombing or ground incursion.
On May 6, the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, ignoring international warnings about its repercussions on the lives of the city’s displaced people. The next day, it took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza with absolute American support, leaving more than 123,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, which has placed Tel Aviv in international isolation and led to its prosecution before the International Court of Justice.
Israel continues its war despite two UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, and orders from the International Court of Justice to end the Rafah invasion, take measures to prevent acts of “genocide,” and improve the miserable humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israel is also challenging the request of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants against its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, for their responsibility for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in Gaza.