Israa al-Mughni stands amid the rubble of her home in the eastern part of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza City. The sound of Israeli drones buzz overhead incessantly.
Al-Mughni’s brother was killed last Monday in an airstrike on a group of citizens who had gathered near a drinking water distribution point. She described the situation in Shuja’iyya as one of the largest neighborhoods in Gaza City, as an ongoing war.
“The war has not stopped, quite the opposite. The war intensified,” al-Mughni said. “They face terrifying conditions in the border areas of the Gaza Strip, where they wake up to gunfire from all directions.”
“The war has not stopped, quite the opposite. The war intensified.”
Israa al-Mughni
Not a single day has passed since the ceasefire began in Gaza in mid-January without deaths or injuries among residents of the border areas. For these residents, the war never ended. The only thing that has changed is the rate of killing.
“We’re exposed to gunfire, shelling, and bombing every day,” al-Mughni added. “My brother went out to bring drinking water, and he was martyred while trying to provide water for his children. How can the war end if my brother was killed?”
“We face death every moment: at home, in the street, and in the places we go to get water and food,” al-Mughni continued.
In Shuja’iyya, people routinely hear gunfire from Israeli military vehicles stationed on the border with Gaza, sometimes accompanied by airstrikes. Most of the residents have not yet been able to return to their homes, and even those who have returned to areas that are relatively far from the army are subjected to relentless killing.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said in its daily death toll on Wednesday that seven people were killed in Gaza within a 24-hour period. Among them were three brothers from the Hamad family, who were bombed by the Israeli army in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that the occupation continues to practice genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip by targeting and killing civilians, risking a breakdown in the ceasefire agreement.
“The occupation deliberately committed a massacre today, killing five civilian martyrs in airstrikes by the occupation’s aircraft,” Qassem said. “This is an extension of the genocidal war the occupation has been waging over the past two years. We call on mediators to take urgent action to pressure the occupation to stop its aggression against our people.”
Well over 100 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. “This is a flagrant and grave violation that threatens the entire agreement,” Qassem added.
‘They burn our food, leaving us nothing to eat.’
The Israeli army stationed on the Gaza border uses every means to intimidate the residents of these areas. Residents believe that the military wants to force them to leave their homes and flee once again. But they insist that they will not leave their homes and will confront all attempts by the Israeli army to intimidate them.
Um Rifaat Habib, from the Jabalia area north of Gaza City, says her family is experiencing conditions similar to what they went through during the war. “We’ve been living in a non-stop war for a year and a half. Every day, we witness gunfire, missiles, and drones targeting civilians.”
“When will it all stop?” Um Rifaat wonders. “We’re tired of death and bombing and fear. We’re tired of the scattered remains and watching our loved ones being torn apart one by one.”
“We’ve been living in a non-stop war for a year and a half. Every day, we witness gunfire, missiles, and drones targeting civilians. When will it all stop?”
Um Rifaat Habib
Um Rifaat tells Mondoweiss that the Israeli army has been sending quadcopter drones into people’s homes to terrorize them, which in many cases open fire upon and bomb their targets.
“A short time ago, a quadcopter entered our home. We almost died. It entered and blew up the food in the kitchen, leaving us nothing to eat,” she said.
Palestinians have high hopes that mediators will pressure Israel to cease the killings. “We have made many concessions to Israel, and we continue to make concessions every day, but Israel does not respond and does not let us live in peace,” Um Rifaat says. “They pursue us everywhere and kill us at every corner.”
In Rafah, more than half of the city’s residents are still unable to reach their areas of residence. The army has killed any person who attempts to approach their homes in those areas.
“The bullets pass over our heads and sometimes collide with the nearby walls,” Muhammad Saqr, a resident of Yibna refugee camp in Rafah who cannot return to his home, tells Mondoweiss. “We have been living in terror for more than a year and a half.”
Saqr says that he is waiting for the army to withdraw so that he can return to his home in Yibna. “Israel is deceiving the world and says it has stopped the war in Gaza,” he says. “The war continues, but the world now thinks it has stopped. We are still dying every day.”