Najah Nabhan is concerned about the future of her and dozens of her relatives who were forced to leave their homes due to the heavy Israeli bombardment during the five days of exchange of fire between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

"The house was bombed as soon as I reached the street," Nabhan says, standing next to cement blocks and concrete slabs that are what remains of the apartment building in which she and 45 other people lived.

The most violent recent confrontations between Gaza and Israel began last week with air strikes that killed three military commanders in the Islamic Jihad Movement, and continued for five days.

The latest round of escalation caused the destruction of dozens of homes, while the United Nations quoted officials in the sector as saying that 103 homes were completely destroyed, while 140 others were severely damaged.

Neighbors helped Nabhan, 56, evacuate five of her daughters, who have special needs and are unable to walk, from the building before it was bombed.
Today, Najah and her family are homeless.

"I hope that my dream of providing a home will come true for my sons and daughters... I will now take them to the neighbors' house to take a shower and borrow clothes from people," she says. "I didn't take anything with me," she added.

Her son Bilal, who lives in the same building, says that his brother received a phone call from the Israeli side asking them to leave.

But Bilal confirms that the house was not bombed with a warning missile, which is usually small and precedes the bombing of the building completely.

The army did not respond to an AFP inquiry about the reason for targeting the house.
Bilal asserts that he is "still traumatized".

"We sell parsley in the market for ten shekels ($2.70) per day," the young man added.

He continues, "We are 45 people in this house... People were screaming, I am asking for shelter for 45 people."

Bilal points to the rubble. "Now they sleep here (beside the rubble)."
Israel and armed factions in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement, have fought several wars in recent years.

The latest escalation resulted in the death of 35 people, including 33 Palestinians, in the Gaza Strip.
In August 2022, three days of clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad left 49 Palestinians dead, including 12 Islamic Jihad members, according to the movement, and at least 19 children, according to the United Nations.

Only a few of those whose homes were destroyed in Gaza can rebuild them in the Strip, where the poverty rate has reached about 53 percent, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Israel besieges the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, by air, land and sea.
In Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, children climbed huge piles of concrete left over from the Israeli bombing.

In one of the overcrowded residential neighborhoods, Muhammad Zaidan's house escaped direct bombing, but the force of the bombing was sufficient to destroy its walls.

"When you want to target one person, there is no need to destroy an entire residential complex," Zaidan, 29, said.

He added, "I am a young man who lives in my home with my children. I focus mostly on my work. What is my fault that you make me pay the bill?"

He wonders, "Why? Do you write me a catastrophe for the rest of my life because I am a Palestinian?"
As Zeidan walked over the remains of his bedroom on Monday, Palestinians in other cities were marking the 75th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, when more than 760,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes during the war that followed the declaration of Israel's creation.

Zidan, who has been sleeping in the street behind the building for four days, explains, "It reminds me that the Palestinian people are afflicted and are subjected to violations here, in the West Bank or Jerusalem.... All Western and Arab countries deal with you as a terrorist criminal."

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to AFP's inquiry about targeting the neighborhood.
When she found out about the destruction of her house, Haneen Nabhan, daughter of Najah, fainted.
"All the pain was inside me," says Hanin, who uses a wheelchair, and notes that her dreams were "shattered."

She adds, "The medicine I need is in the middle of the rubble. All my dreams were at home, and now they are gone."