The married Palestinian couple stood in front of the debris that previously represented the house they intended to settle into.
Just one month before the October 7 outbreak of war, Yasmine Abu Rujileh, 23, and Khalil Al Najjar, 26, were married. During their honeymoon, they had to escape via southern Gaza as nearby communities were being severely damaged by Israeli bombs.
The couple was looking among the rubble for winter clothing when Abu Rujileh said, “We were living a happy life, but this happiness is gone and everything with it.”
Before the bombardment resumed on Friday, displaced Palestinian families around the Gaza Strip took advantage of the momentary quiet before going outside to check on the condition of their houses.
Many are discovering just debris, such as Al Najjar and Abu Rujileh.
According to a recent statistical study, during Israel’s seven-week onslaught in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas terror act, about half of all buildings in Gaza City and the northern portion of the strip have either been damaged or destroyed.
The devastation is less severe but no less striking in the southern part of Gaza, where Israel has asked Palestinian inhabitants to evacuate for their own safety. The investigation indicates that between 10% and 15% of the structures in Khan Younis have sustained damage.
The information was gathered by researchers from Oregon State University and the City University of New York Graduate Center. It is based on an examination of photos taken by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite.
The number of deaths in the previous seven weeks has left Gaza in shock. The Health Ministry, administered by Hamas, claims that over 15,000 Palestinians have died, the majority of them as a result of Israeli bombings. That is the equivalent of around 2.4 million Americans, or about the population of Houston, proportionate to the population.Palestinian
However, the extent of the physical damage has also left many Gazans with the disorienting feeling that the area in which they have spent their whole lives is vanishing before their own eyes, to be replaced by enormous expanses of ruin.
Several of Gaza’s most well-known monuments are now in ruins, according to an NBC News visual analysis. In the past, the Square of the Unknown Soldier in the center of Gaza City was a well-liked park with a playground for kids on one side and trees around the perimeter.Palestinian
The square is now just a patch of brown earth. The trees have been uprooted. And amid the maze of metal, the playground has vanished. The administration of Gaza City claims that as part of a plan to “deliberately target” landmarks, Israeli soldiers flattened it using bulldozers.
When contacted for comment on this article, the Israel Defense Forces did not return messages.
Additionally, a city library was demolished. Children’s books are seen on the ground, coated in ash, in pictures released by the municipality of Gaza City. Demolished as well is the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, which included a theater and its own library.Palestinian
When NBC News was infiltrated with Israeli soldiers searching for tunnels used by Hamas militants, they were able to observe the devastation firsthand on a coastline stretch of northern Gaza. There were not many structures left intact, most having been leveled by military construction trucks or destroyed by Israeli attacks.
At first glance, one two-story house seemed to be in good condition. However, upon entering, it was evident that many external walls had been detonated, leaving its staircase vulnerable to the weather.
The fighting has forced more than half of Gaza’s 2 million citizens to flee, and many of them now have nowhere to go. The country is facing a housing crisis that will last long after the present war ends but is becoming worse every day as winter approaches.
Abu Rujileh and Al Najjar searched Khan Younis’s wreckage for warm clothing as they rummaged through what had once been their bedroom. The explosion had left nothing in its wake, but Abu Rujileh stopped over a red plastic candy box. Sweets that were presented to them on their wedding night were inside.Palestinian
“We extracted our joy from the earth,” she said, her smile sorrowful.
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