Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib was at his home in San Francisco when the panicked calls began. An Israeli airstrike on Thursday hit his family’s home in Rafah, in the so-called safe zone of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge from the war.
Soon, his phone was flooded with news images from the house, where he often went to have family barbecues and play with his grandmother’s ducks. She watched neighbors scramble through the smoldering ruins in search of survivors.
Instead, they found at least 31 bodies, he said, including two women in their 70s, several people in their 60s and nine children between 3 months and 9 years old. More are still missing. She learned the names of the dead through text messages and Facebook updates, spread over hours and days.
“It was disgusting and nauseating,” said Alkhatib, 33, a writer and vocal critic of Hamas who was granted asylum in the United States after the armed group seized power in Gaza in 2007. “My heart was beating out of control. with worry and fear. These are people I grew up with. “It was a family house.”
The attack that killed many members of Alkhatib’s family is one of several that in recent weeks have hit areas where the Israeli army told people to go to avoid airstrikes, calling into question the advice and safety of those who attacked it. they followed.
The war began on October 7, when gunmen led by Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 240 more hostage. Since then, the Israeli military has carried out a massive air campaign and ground offensive that has displaced 1.9 million people, about 85 percent of Gaza’s population, according to the United Nations. The campaign has killed some 20,000 people, according to Gaza officials, destroying entire branches of family trees. It has also destroyed the strip’s civilian infrastructure and economy and paralyzed hospitals.
Azmi Keshawi, a researcher with the International Crisis Group, an independent research organization based in Rafah, said he witnessed three airstrikes there last week: one on Sunday that killed 21 people, another on Monday that killed 11 and another on Tuesday that killed 15.
“The situation on the ground in Rafah is not so calm,” he said.
Nir Dinar, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said Israel has taken “significant steps to urge civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to move towards the safer area in southern Gaza, as well as taken feasible measures to mitigate incidental harm to civilians and civilians.” property during its operations.
He declined to answer questions about the airstrikes in Rafah, but said that “unfortunately Hamas is also embedding itself in safer areas, choosing to do so at the expense of the safety of Gaza residents.”
Before the war, Rafah province, which is about a third the size of Brooklyn, had a population of about 260,000. But in recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of people from northern cities have fled there, and now there are signs that law and order has begun to break down.
Last week, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, told reporters that on a recent visit to Rafah he saw Gazans stop aid trucks, raid their food and devour it in the act.
“That’s how desperate and hungry they are,” he said. “Everywhere you go, people are hungry, desperate and terrified.”
Keshawi, the researcher, said he fled his home in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, and now lives in a tent on a Rafah sidewalk with his family. No one in Rafah, which sits on the border with Egypt, appeared to have been “prepared to receive this amount of people,” he said.
“The living conditions in the shelters are really miserable,” he said. “They have many diseases. You have to queue for hours to go to the bathroom. There is a lack of hygiene, a lack of services from the UN to clean up the garbage. Dirty water runs between the shops.”
When the airstrike hit Alkhatib’s family home on December 14, there were dozens of people inside and more in the backyard. He said that was a reflection of the dire conditions in Rafah and the generosity of his uncle, Dr. Abdullah Shehada, 69, and his aunt, Zainab, 73. Both died in the attack.
“He opened the house to dozens of people,” Alkhatib said, “if there is one building left standing, people crowd in, and that is a common characteristic of what is happening right now in southern Gaza.”
His aunt was a retired teacher at a UN school and his uncle was a well-known doctor, he said. Also among the dead were two other aunts of his, Fatma Nassman, 76, and Hind Nassman, and another uncle, Hassan Nassman, both in their 60s. Several children, including her cousin Ellen, 3 months, and her cousin Iyla, 4 months, were also among the dead.
Alkhatib said he knew of no justification for the attack: the house was not being used by Hamas.
“I tell you from my heart that nothing was happening there,” Alkhatib said. “Even if there were some Hamas members walking around, don’t destroy an entire house and kill everyone in it.”
