Kamal Nabhan screamed as he thrust the phone into the hands of his cousin, unable to believe what the anonymous caller was saying.
The males were about to attend afternoon prayers at the Jabalia refugee camp. But the routine patterns of life were about to be replaced by violent devastation brought about by an alert from above.
Ataf, the cousin of Kamal, made contact with his relative.
Ataf states, “I took the phone from him and spoke to the person on the line.” “He claimed to be from Israeli intelligence and has given you five minutes to vacate the premises.”
They began to return, telling the Israeli caller that he must be mistaken because the building was “packed with disabled individuals.”[The intelligence officer] replied, ‘No, immediately evacuate the house,'” Ataf explains.
It was the fifth day of the most intense Israeli air assaults on Gaza in the past nine months.
Six Islamic Jihad commanders were killed in the targeted assassination campaign.
However, the attacks also resulted in the deaths of ten civilians on the very first night, including the spouses and children of some of the men targeted while they slept. The organisation reacted with missile attacks on Israeli cities, forcing tens of thousands to flee to bomb shelters.
Israel stated that it was acting in response to repeated rocket fire by Islamic Jihad, which in turn stated that it had fired in response to police operations against Palestinians at al-Aqsa mosque in occupied east Jerusalem and the recent death of hunger striker Khader Adnan in an Israeli prison.
Last week’s violence killed 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two Israelis and Palestinians in Israel. According to the UN, more than 1,200 Palestinians were displaced.
At the home of the Nabhan family, Israel carried out its threat. A solitary missile shattered the block.
Just before the late Saturday night agreement on an armistice, Israel razed several residential buildings in similar circumstances, issuing evacuation notices before bombing the structures. These assaults that bring down entire apartment complexes are a common tactic employed in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Israel claims its targets were Islamic Jihad “command and control centres” for rocket launches. It stated that its warning messages were intended to protect uninvolved civilians.
According to local sources, a militant inhabited the building, but it was not an operational center. Human rights groups condemn it as a violation of international law assaults that destroy entire residential blocks. Another resident who received a warning call was filmed urging Israeli forces to attack the guilty party’s flat.
The Jabalia structure has fallen into its foundations. Several families’ escape staircase protrudes horizontally from a damaged wall. A few meters above the ground, the remnants of the roof provide the only shade for the former occupants. Nearly fifty individuals from eight households were rescued by their neighbors.
According to support groups, there were five individuals in the building with disabilities, including muscular dystrophy. They add that some wheelchairs, specially adapted beds, and medications were obliterated during the airstrike.
The executive director of the Gaza-based Society for Rehabilitation, Jamal al-Rozzi, who arrived to assist the families, says his organization will provide food and medical supplies.
“I am angry and in pain, because this should not be happening, at least not to civilians and especially not to the disabled,” he says.
Another one of Kamal Nabhan’s relatives is also hiding in the debris. Rahma Nabhan and her husband Yasser are sitting under a damaged roof slab, soothing their wailing baby Jori.
“My sisters-in-law are disabled; when they were rescued, they were unable to even cover their heads, and their wheelchairs were buried under the house,” says Rahma.
“Everyone witnessed the incapacitated fleeing. They questioned why the residence had to be demolished. Have these handicapped individuals launched rockets?’ She states that we have nothing to do with the current situation.
Rahma leads me through the debris while still holding Jori in her arms.
Her apartment was atop the building. Now, only cardboard signs bearing the names of each former resident have been affixed to the remnants of concrete.
Rahma states, “We are not going anywhere. We will stay in the sun and sleep in the sun; we will not leave the house.”
She states, “We call on international organizations and [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] to stand with us and rebuild this house, as we have nowhere else to go.”
The ceasefire brokered by Egypt on Saturday evening has mainly been held. After months of spiraling violence in the occupied West Bank, which has spilled over into Gaza on three significant occasions since Israel and Hamas’s all-out war in May 2021, tensions remain extremely high.
The assaults of last week have emboldened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politically. They could have easily sparked a much larger conflict, and they still could despite the truce. Despite unprecedented domestic unrest and mounting pressure from religious-ultranationalist extremists within his coalition. He has utilized the conflict to enhance his reputation as a security expert.
Islamic Jihad has utilized the escalation to promote its appeal as the current face of armed resistance against Israel, while Hamas, the dominant militant organization in Gaza, has remained on the periphery in terms of military action.
Publicly, it supported the rocket fire as part of a “unified” Palestinian position, but in practice, it refrained, thereby limiting the round of combat. It must also maintain services for Gaza’s population despite the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. A larger conflict could further sway public opinion against it.
Since 2021, Israel has let thousands of labourers entry into Israel, boosting Gaza’s economy and Hamas’ tax revenue.
However, the group has cautioned against Thursday’s annual plans for an ultranationalist Israeli flag march through Muslim neighborhoods in occupied east Jerusalem, keeping tensions high.
Israel and the West classify Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations.
Nonetheless, many Palestinians in this region feel abandoned by an international community that continues to discuss a political future for the region – a two-state solution – which is categorically rejected by both Israel’s nationalist government and the Palestinian armed groups.
At the Nabhans’ home, neighbors and other Gaza-based charities congregate in support of the family’s residents. It occurs on the same day that Palestinians commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba when 700,000 people escaped or were expelled from their homes as a result of the conflicts preceding Israel’s establishment.
The destitute individuals hold up signs that read “Protect Us” and “Help Us”
Ataf Nabhan points to the debris and says his plea is simple.
“This family needs shelter,” he declares. We simply request that human rights organizations look after this family.
