Gaza

At around 1:30 AM today, without any warning, an Israeli airstrike hit the home of our neighbors, just three meters away from our own in Gaza. My relative Yousef Jber, his wife Heba, and their daughter Yumna were all killed instantly. Yumna was born in early 2024, several months after the beginning of this war. She has now died before its end.

Their bodies were torn to pieces, and parts of them flew into every corner of our house. We sat in shock amidst the wreckage, surrounded by flesh, blood, and debris, waiting for daylight when civil defense volunteers arrived to collect what was left of the remains. Our house has also been badly damaged, and the smell of blood and smoke is everywhere.

The missile that hit their home was of the “ground-to-ground” type, which Israel tends to use against military rather than civilian targets due to its massive destructive power. Last week, another neighbor’s home was also destroyed, killing Mouath Ghanem, who was two, and his mother Rima. But the strike today was more powerful, resulting in the complete destruction of the house. The only survivor was Yousef and Heba’s three-year-old son, Amer. My children and other neighbors who rushed to help pulled him from under the rubble, but he is severely injured.

Yousef was a calm, simple, and compassionate man. He was 28 years old, an only child with a degree in civil engineering. He didn’t belong to any political faction, let alone a militia, and was known among his neighbors for his kindness. No one could have imagined, let alone justified, that he and his family should be wiped out so quickly and violently. They had already been through so much: Yumna was born in midwinter in a tent, during an earlier evacuation in Rafah.

Last night was the hardest of my family’s lives. My daughter Aseel, 29, could not move around the house, because my son Hosam had himself narrowly escaped death. His room was completely destroyed, moments after he had walked out of it. Had he been inside, he would have been among the victims.

I have never seen any evidence of fighters or military activity in our area, the al-Bureij camp in central Gaza. It is entirely residential, and contains no known resistance faction sites. The attack thus seems random, unless it is part of a conscious strategy to bomb civilian areas — to instill fear among the population so that they flee elsewhere. If so, its results have been catastrophic for Palestinians.

If this is Israel’s intention, it would fit the claim published by the Washington Post yesterday that the Trump administration really does intend to turn Gaza into a “riviera” under American control after “relocating” its population. But this is not remotely realistic. Despite the hardship which engulfs their lives, most Gazan families don’t want to leave this land. If strong pressure or violence is used, we may be forced to go, but that is no recipe for lasting peace. We also reject the idea of foreign control: there is intense mistrust of international plans which don’t listen to Palestinians or respect their rights.

Israel does, from a military point of view, have the power to destroy Hamas, or at least degrade most of its armed strength. It has more advanced weapons, technology, and better intelligence, and the balance of power is clearly in its favor. But even then, fully realizing its military goals will take a long time and will come with an ever higher human and political cost. What’s more, it provides no guarantee of lasting stability in Gaza.

Today’s strike was not just the story of the destruction of one family, but part of the daily reality experienced by thousands of Palestinians. Airstrikes make no distinction between civilians and fighters. They affect everyone indiscriminately, and they do not acknowledge family or neighborly ties. So we live on in shock and pain and exhaustion. It is becoming harder to hold ourselves together in this brutal, unstable reality.