“A city of ghosts” – return to Rafah to find death and destruction

On the morning of January 19, Khalil Fahjan left the little wet tent of his family in Deir al-Balah and quickly headed south in his family home in Rafah. The deadline for a “cease-fire” agreement to stop the genocidal aggression of Israel against Gaza, at least temporarily, was supposed to come into force at 8:30 am that morning. He had not gone to Rafah for more than seven months since the Israeli army invaded the city, and he was desperate to go home.

Fahjan, 25, was not aware that the Israeli army had delayed the implementation of the agreement of almost three hours, attacking and killing the Palestinians in Khan Younis and Northern Gaza in the interval.

When he arrived in his district of Tal-Al-Sultan, he had a hard time understanding the scene in front of him. “It was such a devastation that I could see the sea in the center of Rafah, which is four kilometers,” said Fahjan to Drop Site News. “All the houses in my region have been transformed into a lot of rubble. At first glance, I could not identify my neighborhood or my house. Each landmark that I had known was erased. It is now a city of ghosts.

He described walking in an open cemetery, watching people collect decaying body parts and human remains in an effort to identify their loved ones in the middle of unploded ammunition in the streets and inside buildings.

When he reached his home, he barely stood. The interior was burned and charred, and the walls collapsed and riddled with ball holes. “My house, where all my memories, my work, my dreams, my certificate – where my life was – had simply disappeared,” he said. “This war has stolen everything from us. I look at Rafah and ask myself whether or not I will stay in a tent for the next two or three years. The city needs 10 to 20 years to resume an idea of ​​what it was before. »»

Before the war start of the war 15 months ago, Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, housed some 280,000 people; And the crossing of Rafah on the border with Egypt was the only way to Gaza not controlled by Israel. Everything that was to change violently.

While the air bombing of Israel was intensified, the Palestinians through Gaza were forcibly moved to the south, many in Khan Younis at the start, then – while the Israeli troops invaded Khan Younis in early December after a ceasefire The one week – in Rafah. The number of people in Rafah inflated to more than 1.5 million, or almost three -quarters of the Gaza population.

In April, Israel announced that it would invade Rafah despite the disastrous warnings of humanitarian organizations, the United Nations and other international organizations. Even President Biden warned that he would not provide offensive weapons to Israel if she invaded Rafah, only to return characteristic.

The Israeli invasion, when it arrived in May, forced more than a million Palestinians to be moved again, many of them entering Deir al-Balah and Mawasi Khan Younis. The Israeli army has taken over the corridor of Philadelphi which runs along the border with Egypt and closed the border crossing of Rafah. During the months that followed, Israeli troops systematically demolished a large part of the region. Biden administration has maintained the constant flow of American weapons and political support in Israel.

According to a quantification of debris assessment Directed by the UN-Habitat and the United Nations environment program, the debris generated by the war against Gaza went from 22.9 million tonnes on January 7, 2024 to 50.8 million tonnes by the 1st December 2024, marking an increase of 121% in 11 months. The most significant increase was observed in Rafah where the quantity of debris increased by 1,898% staggering, almost twenty times.

After the entry into force of the “ceasefire” last week, Israel repeatedly violated the agreement, killing dozens of civilians returning to their devastated neighborhoods, the majority of them in Rafah. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed through Gaza since the ceasefire settled, said Dr. Zaher al-Wahaidi, director of the Information Center for the Ministry of Health, told Drop Site News – 49 of them to Rafah alone. Meanwhile, the official assessment of confirmed deaths in Gaza continues to shoot while dozens of bodies are recovered under the rubble. More than 470 bodies have been recovered since January 19, al -Wahaidi said – 150 of them in Rafah.

“We need caterpillars and bulldozers to eliminate the wreckage and recover these corpses. People come back to nothing. Rafah is destroyed and murder and bombing continue there, “Al-Wahaidi told Drop Site. “Nearly 700 bodies are still trapped under the rubble in Rafah; Recover them mainly depends on the authorization of this essential machinery which can help with this heavy mission. “”

A week in the “ceasefire”, some residents of Rafah are still not able to return to their devastated neighborhoods. Mostafa Sabasi, 33, was moved four times with her family after the Israeli invasion of Rafah in May. When the ceasefire entered into force, he finally returned to Rafah and found his house intact, although with windows and puffed doors, damaged walls and the roof was cracking. “I was lucky that my house is somehow still standing, but rebuilding it will need a lot of time and efforts,” Sabasi said to drop site. However, he said that he was unable to stay in his damaged house as in Al-Jneina, an eastern district of Rafah that Israeli troops have shot several times in the past few days. Sabasi is now back, as well as 10 family members in their refuge in Khan Younis.

“I know that the Israeli army leaves an immense destruction behind in all the places where it enters, but Rafah was completely destroyed. I have never predicted that I would see this scale of destruction. The city has become a flat landscape with debris accumulated everywhere, ”said Sabasi. “All public, educational and health establishments have been reduced to rubble. It really took me hours to realize that I was in Rafah. People have returned to see their houses; However, almost everyone lost theirs, “he said, adding,” In the streets, there were leftovers. I saw jaws, skulls, skeletons, limbs and fingers. People just don’t know where to go.

“This war deprived us of everything and killed our dreams and our passion. My house was damaged, my work stopped, my dreams faded and my family was separated. Several members of my relatives were also murdered during the genocide. This feeling of tranquility, security and stability has disappeared. I feel unsure to live in a city that has painted only a miserable and traumatic image since many of my neighbors were killed and all the districts were leveled. In and around my house, there were several exploded shells, drawn prints and uninformed and detonated missiles. I was very alarmed to walk in the streets because I could lose my life at any time.

When the initial phase of the ceasefire agreement officially took root, Fedaa Sababah, 21, was delighted-she could finally return home to Rafah after being moved to Mwasi, Khan Younis for more than eight month. However, she quickly discovered that the second day of the ceasefire, Israeli tanks and troops had repositioned themselves in an area near her house in the “Saudi” district and her house was inaccessible.

“When my grandfather first heard the news of Rafah’s next invasion, he could not take him and died of a heart attack,” said Sababah to Drop site. “I feel like I have lost everything. The ceasefire was a breath of fresh air, but our happiness was incomplete because I lost irreplaceable things. Then came the return to Rafah, which was a trip mixed with pain and hope. When I entered, I felt a huge shock to see my house in ruins. »»

“The explosives were everywhere. While we are heading to our house, some people have warned us of going to specific areas because many mines have been planted. We were about to cross these areas. We really have the chance to have escaped death. Tas of explosives, mines, bullets and remains of grenades and weapons of the Israeli army were dispersed in our neighborhoods. We were terrified to walk in the streets, so we followed the tank prints to avoid invisible mines or explosives, ”said Sababah. “The decomposed body scenes recovered under the rubble were the most difficult I had to see in all my life. Everyone picked up bodies and pieces. No one could know who the leg is the hand, who is the head. »»

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