How Israeli forces destroyed the Jabaliya refugee camp

Stories of horror and ruins: The Guardian’s chronicle reveals the destruction of Jabaliya with accounts from survivors and images

On the morning of October 9, 2023, the Trans area of ​​the open market in Jabaliya refugee camp was busy. Two days after the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, the area had still not been hit by Israeli jets.

The camp, north of the city of the same name, was established in 1948. Although technically still a refugee camp, over the decades it has become virtually indistinguishable from the urban sprawl of northern Gaza – densely populated, vibrant and active. In addition to the large open market in its center, there were restaurants and schools, two football teams, bakeries and clinics.

Jabaliya, October 8, 2023

They were the first shots of a devastating Israeli campaign, conducted in three waves, that turned the field into an unrecognizable landscape of rubble.

“This year is one of the worst I have ever experienced,” said Ahlam al-Tlouli, 33, from the Tal al-Zaatar area of ​​the camp. “We experience destruction, murder, hunger, displacement, fear, terror and siege. Every minute that passes feels like a year.”

Throughout the Israeli invasion, settlements throughout the Gaza Strip suffered damage.

This is the story of Jabaliya’s ruin.

‘We were hungry and without food’

The first offensive: October 2023 – January 2024
Jabaliya was bombarded with airstrikes in the first months of the war. The deadliest, on October 31, killed dozens of people and left large craters at a busy intersection.

Israel said the camp was a command center for Hamas’ northern brigade and that it had identified the group’s tunnel systems beneath the camp. Civilians across northern Gaza were told to go south, but many were unable or unwilling to leave.

“My father was at home and couldn’t leave because he was injured and had an amputated leg,” said Tlouli. “Even if we wanted to leave, we didn’t have the money to go anywhere or meet our needs.”

On November 8, Israeli troops entered the camp. Tlouli reported that, at that time, the entire family, except his father, had taken shelter in schools run by Unrwa, the Palestinian refugee agency. “We took turns going back to the house and checking on our dad,” he said. “One day, when my stepmother was returning to school, she was killed by gunmen. A few days later, my father was also killed by a sniper.”

As the fighting intensified, the family was forced to move from school to school. “We were hungry and without food,” she said. “Even when there was food, we didn’t have money to buy it.”

On December 12, Israel’s then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that fighting in Jabaliya had ended, with hundreds of Hamas fighters killed. The IDF stated that Hamas’ military capabilities had been dismantled. At the end of January, Israel withdrew from the field.

‘All the houses were in ruins’

The second offensive: May 2024
Intermittent clashes continued throughout January despite Israeli claims that Hamas had been defeated in Jabaliya. Images from April show damage to buildings along two roads in the countryside.

On May 11, the IDF reported that Hamas had managed to reestablish its military capabilities and issued a new round of evacuation orders for civilians. Two days later, a full-scale reinvasion began.

Umm Suhaib Siam, a 42-year-old widow and mother of three, was trapped in her home in Fakhoura district, Block 9, when the second offensive began.

Siam recalls the day she decided to risk leaving her house, which had been hit by an artillery shell, injuring her and her children. The family moved to a nearby clinic and stayed there for two days “until we were surrounded by the Israeli army.”

She recalls a man with a loudspeaker saying the clinic needed to be evacuated because the building was going to be bombed. “He started showing us the way, talking on the phone, while a quadcopter flew over him. We passed through the center of the field, next to the main market, along Awda Street to the Khadamat football club.”

When Israeli troops withdrew three weeks later – again claiming to have dismantled Hamas – it was reported that 70% of the camp’s buildings had suffered severe damage. Drone footage filmed in June revealed the extent of the destruction.

‘Jabaliya is like hell’

The third offensive: October 2024 – ongoing
The severe damage inflicted on Jabaliya during the second offensive pales in comparison to the destruction since October 5, when Israeli forces returned in large numbers for the third time.

Over the course of the offensive – which targeted the town of Jabaliya as well as the countryside – entire clusters of buildings were demolished, replaced in some areas by level strips to accommodate Israeli military vehicles. In some instances, homes were destroyed with demolition charges. In images posted online recently, excavators and backhoes can be seen tearing down structures.

“There are bodies on the roads and under the rubble,” said Mahmoud Basal, 39, a civil defense officer. “It’s total destruction.”

The stadium of the Khadamat sports club, which was established in 1951 and included football, basketball and volleyball teams, had survived previous operations and served for a time as a shelter for the displaced. At some point during the third offensive, the football field was vacated and now appears to house several Israeli military vehicles.

Khaled al-Ayla, a 54-year-old university professor, said: “The situation in Jabaliya is like hell. Houses are demolished on the residents… All you see is destruction… There is nothing left. Not houses, schools, universities or hospitals. Nothing.”

Sam Rose, UNRWA’s senior deputy director for Gaza affairs, said the latest Israeli operations were “completely different” from previous conflicts in the territory. “This time, they are razing the place… it has become uninhabitable.”

He added: “I have been to Yarmouk [o campo palestino em Damasco, que foi fortemente destruído em 2015]but this is 20 times worse. I don’t think [o IDF] have a plan beyond continuing. This has a terrible momentum.”

Other observers detect a more deliberate agenda in Jabaliya and across northern Gaza: the slow implementation of a scorched earth policy known as the “generals’ plan,” designed to expel civilians from the areas by declaring them “closed military zones,” where anyone who remains is considered a combatant and all aid and supplies are cut off.

Regardless of intent, large-scale destruction of neighborhoods occurred throughout northern Gaza, including in the countryside.

A document circulated to Israeli soldiers in recent weeks, revealed by the newspaper Haaretz, talks about “exposing large areas” – a euphemism, according to the newspaper, for destroying buildings and infrastructure in such a way that Hamas fighters cannot hide in them, but no one can live in them.

Nadia Hardman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said HRW identified a pattern in Jabaliya and across northern Gaza of Israeli forces clearing territory for buffer zones and security corridors.

“One can argue whether the bombing campaign is reckless destruction or part of hostilities, but taking control of an area and intentionally destroying it seems much more systematic,” Hardman said.

In a statement, the IDF said: “The IDF is currently operating in northern Gaza against terrorist targets due to Hamas’ efforts to restore its operational capabilities in the area… The IDF targets military objectives only. Attacks aimed at military objectives are subject to relevant international law, including the adoption of all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians.”

Even close Israeli observers are struggling to understand the intensity of the focus on Jabaliya. “It’s a mystery I’m trying to understand myself,” said Michael Milstein of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center. “We all understand that this operation does not defeat Hamas, which obviously still exists, even in Jabaliya.”

For Mohammed Nasser, 48, from Tal al-Zahar, who worked as a television camera operator, it is difficult to see what else could be destroyed. “Previous wars have not caused destruction like this,” he said. “Houses, streets, health and education facilities – everything is gone.”

With information from The Guardian*