Gaza- “How do we recover from this war?” Palestinian Abu Muhammad Al-Madhoun answers a call from one of his neighbors informing him that the Israeli occupation army has blown up his third house in Beit Lahia, during the recent military operation north of Gaza.
The six-year-old Abu Muhammad’s wound did not heal when the occupation destroyed his house and burned a residential building they owned in Beit Lahia during the first months of the war on Gaza.
One of these three houses was bombed by the Israeli occupation in the Battle of Saif al-Quds in 2021 and was restored.
Abu Muhammad told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “The heartbreak and misery consumed the faces of the family, which could not imagine living a day like this, and losing everything they owned overnight.”
Abu Muhammad and his family have no shelter left in northern Gaza, but in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, he was determined to return there and live on the ruins of his destroyed homes instead of experiencing a difficult displacement, the details of which he was fed up with until he settled in a tent in Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations and human rights organizations say that the Israeli army is deliberately blowing up the remaining homes in northern Gaza to forcibly displace residents and force the displaced never to think about returning to that area, but Abu Muhammad says that “the people of Gaza are determined to return to their homes and that the occupier will not achieve its goals.”
Massive destruction
Data from the United Nations Satellite Center confirm that the Israeli army destroyed 34,476 buildings in the North Gaza Governorate, completely or partially, from the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023 until September 6, 2024.
For the 18th day in a row, the occupation army continues its third ground operation in northern Gaza, and with its military arsenal, it is blowing up homes and landmarks in multiple areas in northern Gaza through aerial bombardment, booby-trapping and blowing up homes and residential squares, or using robots and explosive barrels.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net obtained satellite images showing the extent of the destruction in 4 different areas north of Gaza: Al-Faluja, Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun.
Reviewing satellite images shows the massive destruction in these communities during October 2024 compared to the same location in the period preceding the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Disaster areas
Last June, the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza declared the governorates of Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip “disaster areas” that are no longer livable, due to the massive destruction caused by the Israeli army since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.
In northern Gaza, Dr. Muhammad Al-Mughair, Director General of the Supply and Equipment Department of the Civil Defense Service in the Gaza Strip, explained to Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the percentage of destruction in the urban structure and housing in the governorate, which includes the town of Jabalia and its camp, the town of Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia, was estimated at about 95%. When the infrastructure became 100% completely destroyed.
The area of northern Gaza is 62 square kilometers, constituting 17% of the total area of the Strip, which amounts to 365 square kilometers.
The Israeli occupation army has dropped more than 83,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip since the start of the aggression, turning entire residential areas and neighborhoods into a pile of rubble and rubble.
While the Ministry of Public Works in Gaza said that more than a quarter of a million housing units were completely or partially destroyed and became uninhabitable, noting that more than 80% of the roads were completely destroyed and need comprehensive rehabilitation.
With American support, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, which left more than 142,000 Palestinians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters.
Israel continues this war in full view of the whole world, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to end it immediately, and the orders of the International Court of Justice to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip.
