SHIJAIYAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians returned to breathtaking scenes of destruction in Gaza City’s Shijaiyah district after Israeli forces withdrew, ending a two-week offensive there. Civil defense workers said Thursday they had found the bodies of 60 people in the rubble so far.
Families who fled the attack ventured back into Shijaiyah to the condition of their houses or save what they could.
Nearly every building was reduced to rubble block by block, leaving behind huge piles of concrete and twisted rebar. Here and there, gray, hollowed-out concrete frames stood several stories high. The omnipresent hum of Israeli military drones hung in the hot summer air as people rode bicycles and horse-drawn carts along dirt paths where the streets had apparently been bulldozed.
Sharif Abu Shanab saw that his family’s four-story building had collapsed. “I can’t get in. I can’t get anything out, not even a can of tuna. We have nothing, no food or water,” he said.
Since he fled the district, his family has been sleeping on the streets, he said. “Where are we going and to whom? … We don’t have a home or anything,” he said in despair. “There is only one solution, hit us with a nuclear bomb and free us from this life.”
The Israeli army has invaded Shijaiyah several times over the past nine months. war against Hamas militants in GazaThe latest attack began in late June, when it said it was pursuing militants who had regrouped in the district. The attack caused some 80,000 people to flee Shijaiyah, most to nearby areas, and it is not known how many people remained in the district during the fighting.
The Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday evening that operations in Shijaiyah had ended. It said its forces had killed dozens of militants and destroyed eight tunnels in the area. Those claims could not be independently confirmed.
Gaza’s Civil Defense organization said that during the Israeli offensive, emergency teams were largely unable to respond to calls for help from residents in destroyed buildings. After the Israeli withdrawal, teams went in and retrieved 60 bodies, it said, adding that the search was ongoing. More bodies are believed to be buried under the rubble, but the organization has little heavy equipment to clear rubble.
The United Nations estimated earlier this week that around 300,000 Palestinians remain in northern Gaza, after a large part of the population left earlier in the warMost of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents now suffer widespread hunger as they are crowded into squalid tent camps.
Israel started the war in Gaza after Hamas’ attack on October 7 in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and kidnapping about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,300 people in Gaza, the Ministry of HealthNo distinction is made in the count between combatants and civilians.
The United Nations’ top court has ordered Israel to take steps to protect Palestinians while it investigates genocide allegations against Israeli leaders. Israel denies the charges.
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