Gaza Home Demolitions Stir Palestinian Frustration

Some in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp say the road project causes hardship to the community © MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
Some in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp say the road project causes hardship to the community © MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
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Gaza Home Demolitions Stir Palestinian Frustration

Some in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp say the road project causes hardship to the community © MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
Some in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp say the road project causes hardship to the community © MAHMUD HAMS / AFP

Ramadan Abu Saif looked on as bulldozers ploughed into his neighbour's Gaza City home, knowing his could be next as an infrastructure project surges forward in the impoverished Palestinian enclave.

Last month, Hamas militants who govern Gaza began demolishing 62 houses at Al-Shati refugee camp as they widen the territory's main coastal road.

Most of the affected residents accepted financial compensation totalling some $3 million in exchange for giving up their homes, Hamas government spokesperson Salameh Maarouf said.

But a handful have refused, instead facing down a move they say is destroying their community.

Every morning for around a week, families -- many of them refugees in Gaza from the 1948 conflict following Israel's creation -- watched as their houses were reduced to rubble.

Abu Saif told AFP he supported the road project but not if it meant losing both his two-storey home and his cafe next door which looks out to the sea.

The 58-year-old, whose family was displaced from Hamama -- now in southern Israel -- almost 75 years ago, said he had been offered around $225,000 for the house, a sum he said was "unfair".

"If they demolish my house, it means the death of my memories and the memories of my grandparents, father and mother," he said.

Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 and has faced increasing pressure to improve living standards for the territory's 2.3 million residents despite a crippling Israeli blockade.

Hamas spokesman Maarouf described the road widening project as "vital" for addressing traffic jams that have long plagued the area.

"We held many meetings with the (home) owners... in the past weeks, and there was a positive response and desire from almost everyone," he said.

A community center which hosts a football field and halls for table tennis and parkour is also slated for demolition, as well as several United Nations administrative buildings.

An official at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said "we have nothing to do with the demolition".

The agency withdrew from several facilities in the area "at the request of the (Hamas) government", the UN official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Kamal Saidam, 51, grew up playing sports in the community centre and was among those set to lose his house.

He said he was "not against" the road project but objected to it causing hardship to the community.

He watched on angrily as workers removed the last of the community centre's furniture in anticipation of its demolition.

"This club is one of the symbols of the camp," he said.

"I cannot imagine being displaced from here."



Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Iran-Israel war has helped strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu domestically and overseas, just as his grip on power looked vulnerable.

On the eve of launching strikes on Iran, his government looked to be on the verge of collapse, with a drive to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews threatening to scupper his fragile coalition.

Nearly two years on from Hamas's unprecedented attack in 2023, Netanyahu was under growing domestic criticism for his handling of the war in Gaza, where dozens of hostages remain unaccounted for, said AFP.

Internationally too, he was coming under pressure including from longstanding allies, who since the war with Iran began have gone back to expressing support.

Just days ago, polls were predicting Netanyahu would lose his majority if new elections were held, but now, his fortunes appear to have reversed, and Israelis are seeing in "Bibi" the man of the moment.

– 'Reshape the Middle East' –

For decades, Netanyahu has warned of the risk of a nuclear attack on Israel by Iran -- a fear shared by most Israelis.

Yonatan Freeman, a geopolitics expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Netanyahu's argument that the pre-emptive strike on Iran was necessary draws "a lot of public support" and that the prime minister has been "greatly strengthened".

Even the opposition has rallied behind him.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is my political rival, but his decision to strike Iran at this moment in time is the right one," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed.

A poll published Saturday by a conservative Israeli channel showed that 54 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the prime minister.

The public had had time to prepare for the possibility of an offensive against Iran, with Netanyahu repeatedly warning that Israel was fighting for its survival and had an opportunity to "reshape the Middle East."

During tit-for-tat military exchanges last year, Israel launched air raids on targets in Iran in October that are thought to have severely damaged Iranian air defenses.

Israel's then-defense minister Yoav Gallant said the strikes had shifted "the balance of power" and had "weakened" Iran.

"In fact, for the past 20 months, Israelis have been thinking about this (a war with Iran)," said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at Israel's Open University.

Since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Netanyahu has ordered military action in Gaza, against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as targets in Syria where long-time leader Bashar al-Assad fell in December last year.

"Netanyahu always wants to dominate the agenda, to be the one who reshuffles the deck himself -- not the one who reacts -- and here he is clearly asserting his Churchillian side, which is, incidentally, his model," Charbit said.

"But depending on the outcome and the duration (of the war), everything could change, and Israelis might turn against Bibi and demand answers."

– Silencing critics –

For now, however, people in Israel see the conflict with Iran as a "necessary war," according to Nitzan Perelman, a researcher specialized in Israel at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.

"Public opinion supports this war, just as it has supported previous ones," she added.

"It's very useful for Netanyahu because it silences criticism, both inside the country and abroad."

In the weeks ahead of the Iran strikes, international criticism of Netanyahu and Israel's military had reached unprecedented levels.

After more than 55,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, and a blockade that has produced famine-like conditions there, Israel has faced growing isolation and the risk of sanctions, while Netanyahu himself is the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

But on Sunday, two days into the war with Iran, the Israeli leader received a phone call from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has held talks with numerous counterparts.

"There's more consensus in Europe in how they see Iran, which is more equal to how Israel sees Iran," explained Freeman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Israel was doing "the dirty work... for all of us."

The idea that a weakened Iran could lead to regional peace and the emergence of a new Middle East is appealing to the United States and some European countries, according to Freeman.

But for Perelman, "Netanyahu is exploiting the Iranian threat, as he always has."