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Israeli Strike Kills 4 Aid Workers in Gaza 'Safe Zone,' UK-based Group Says

12 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: People inspect the damage UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building complex in western Gaza City's Al-Sinaa neighborhood following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. Photo: Hadi Daoud/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
12 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: People inspect the damage UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building complex in western Gaza City's Al-Sinaa neighborhood following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. Photo: Hadi Daoud/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israeli Strike Kills 4 Aid Workers in Gaza 'Safe Zone,' UK-based Group Says

12 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: People inspect the damage UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building complex in western Gaza City's Al-Sinaa neighborhood following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. Photo: Hadi Daoud/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
12 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: People inspect the damage UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building complex in western Gaza City's Al-Sinaa neighborhood following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. Photo: Hadi Daoud/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

A United Kingdom-based aid group said one of its senior employees in Gaza was killed Friday in an Israeli strike that hit its warehouse located in an Israeli-declared humanitarian safe zone. The strike also killed three staffers from other aid groups using the warehouse, the Al-Khair Foundation said in a statement.
The Israeli military said Husam Mansour, the Al-Khair Foundation member who was killed, was in fact a senior Hamas militant. Israel said he used his position with the humanitarian group to raise money for Hamas, The Associated Press reported.
After a two-week Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, dozens of bodies were collected throughout Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and brought to Al-Ahli Hospital on Friday morning. Civil defense workers said they were still recovering dead and wounded from destroyed streets and buildings.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,300 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to take steps to protect Palestinians as it examines genocide allegations against Israeli leaders. Israel denies the charge.

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Reduced to Rubble: Palestinians Return to ‘Unrecognizable’ Gaza

Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Reduced to Rubble: Palestinians Return to ‘Unrecognizable’ Gaza

Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza were shocked at the extent of the destruction and devastation left behind by the Israeli war machine after 15 months of war and as a ceasefire took effect on Sunday.

Asharq Al-Awsat accompanied residents of Jabalia as they returned to their homes and assessed the extent of the destruction.

“Where are our homes?!” asked Amal al-Asakry in despair as she arrived at Jabalia camp, which has been reduced to rubble by Israel. Her house and others have been razed to the ground.

“We have nothing left. Our lives and future... they destroyed our homes and the future of our children,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I returned to Jabalia hoping to find something left of my house, my clothes and my furniture, but I found nothing. The house has been completely destroyed,” she lamented.

Israel carried out a military operation in Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun for over a hundred days, using its entire military might to carry out air strikes, ground operations and bomb houses, hospitals and other buildings.

Another resident, Mahmoud al-Sahhar, believed that his house would still be standing after he came across a photograph taken by an Israeli soldier that showed that his house was partially damaged.

When he returned to Jabalia, he was shocked to find out that it had been totally destroyed. “I built this house brick by brick so that I can secure my family’s future,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat, pointing to his home that may have been destroyed shortly before the Israeli withdrawal.

Asharq Al-Awsat's tour of the area showed that no party could come up with a close estimate of the extent of the damage given how massive it is. The area has become unrecognizable due to the destruction and damage.

Plans to remove the rubble from the streets are no longer viable because it is just everywhere. Jabalia has effectively been turned into Gaza’s largest pile of rubble.

Residents couldn’t even get their vehicles and carts to move across the area because roads have been destroyed.

Nemr al-Nimnim told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I was raised in the camp, but I couldn’t recognize any of its roads. It will take years to remove the rubble from Gaza, especially Jabalia and the nearby areas. Reconstruction may take decades.”

He said he was hoping to make a quick return to the camp, “but the area is unlivable. There’s no water or any place that can shelter us. It’s as if an earthquake had destroyed the camp.”

It appears that Israeli forces had deliberately sought to destroy UNRWA centers and other facilities offering services. Infrastructure was also completely destroyed to prevent people from resuming their lives any time soon.

Confronted with the devastation, the residents urged their loved ones to avoid returning to Jabalia and instead head to other areas.

Another resident, Duaa Munir, told Asharq Al-Awsat that she urged her relatives to head to southern Gaza because there is nothing to return to in Jabalia. “There isn’t even any space to set up camps” because of the rubble, she said.

Over a million people are internally displaced in Gaza with the majority seeking refuge in camps along the coast and in central and southern parts of the enclave.

The United Nations has said that Gaza’s reconstruction could take more than 350 years if it remains under an Israeli blockade. Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69% of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 245,000 homes. With over 100 trucks working full time, it would take more than 15 years just to clear the rubble away.