Israel has started the invasion of Gaza City, and is now annihilating one of its most historic neighborhoods

Earlier this month, the Israeli army confirmed its plans to occupy Gaza City, with the invasion reportedly set to start on October 7. But on the ground, the invasion has already started. 

On August 10, the Israeli army began invading the eastern parts of Gaza City, with Israeli ground forces moving into one of the city’s largest neighborhoods, al-Zaytoun. The neighborhood borders the Netzarim corridor to the south.    

Locals from the Zaytoun neighborhood told Mondoweiss that they had received orders via phone calls to evacuate their homes to the southern Gaza Strip. Shortly after, the Israeli army started relentlessly bombarding the neighborhood.

Based on the pace of the carpet-bombing, locals in Gaza are now speculating that October 7 would not be the date Israel’s occupation of the city began, but the deadline for when Gaza City would be completely erased.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Gaza Civil Defense, says that the Israeli army has been present in the Zaytoun neighborhood since the beginning of the war. He explains that the Israeli army had conducted an operation in the eastern parts of Gaza City two months ago, when the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, adjacent to al-Zaytoun, was completely leveled. 

Basal explains that the Israeli army’s most recent operation in the eastern areas began nine days ago with the intensive targeting of buildings overlooking the Netzarim corridor, starting on August 10.

“We are talking about 450 buildings in the al-Zaytoun area that were destroyed in just nine days,” Basal said.

Then the ground forces began to approach. Basal says that on Tuesday night, Israeli tanks advanced 150 meters into al-Zaytoun until they reached the Sabra clinic, under cover of heavy artillery fire.

The tanks withdrew at dawn on Wednesday, Basal says, but the artillery shelling continues, destroying buildings and homes in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood. He confirms that residents of the area fear that a sudden invasion of the entire neighborhood is next, noting that  80% of Zeitoun’s residents have been evacuated, with those left behind remaining for lack of a better option.

“Not everyone will leave their homes,” Basal told Mondoweiss. “Some families don’t have tents or places to seek shelter, especially those who experienced displacement for the first time and experienced the bitterness of living in camps and tents. They have no intention of repeating that experience.”

“Previously, the displaced would head to Rafah and Khan Younis, but now those places no longer exist. The occupation destroyed them,” Basal said, adding that the only remaining place for the displaced is the coastal Mawasi area, which already suffers from overcrowding. “If the occupation were to occupy Gaza City, the lives of over a million people would be directly threatened.”

At least 75% of Gaza City’s infrastructure has been destroyed, Basal says, leading to a “catastrophic” collapse of the service system.

Israeli tanks roll into neighborhoods

Huda Abdul Rahman, a former resident of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, explains the difficult situation facing residents, noting that shelling began falling randomly on homes above the heads of residents on Tuesday.

Abdul Rahman is not originally from Gaza City. She is one of the tens of thousands who fled their homes in north Gaza under Israeli bombardment, resettling in Gaza City. She says she had no intention of leaving her Zaytoun residence, as the western part of Gaza City was crowded with thousands of other displaced people from the north. “There was nowhere to flee, so my family and I decided to stay in al-Zaytoun,” she tells Mondoweiss.

Their resolve weakened once the shelling intensified and they began receiving calls from the Israeli military, ordering them to evacuate the entire al-Zaytoun neighborhood and head south to the Mawasi area. Abdul Rahman explains that when she left her residence on Tuesday, the area she lived in was almost completely destroyed by heavy shelling.

“When we were forced to leave toward western Gaza, the bombing didn’t stop,” Abdul Rahman explains. “It intensified. We found that most of the residents there had also left their homes after receiving similar calls from the Israeli army.” 

Artillery shelling continued for several hours. “There was no prior warning or consideration for the presence of civilians in their homes,” Abdul Rahman recounts.

Some members of Abdul Rahman’s family tried to return to their home to check on their neighborhood, but found Israeli military tanks positioned very close to the eastern part of al-Zaytoun. “I won’t be able to return to my home as long as these vehicles are positioned nearby,” she says.

‘Their sole purpose is to erase this ancient town’

Abdul Aziz al-Dahdouh, a resident of al-Zaytoun, notes that the only part of the neighborhood that has not been destroyed is the Old City of Gaza. But he fears that soon, the historic Old City will also be erased.

“The Israeli army has used indiscriminate shelling of homes to force us to flee,” al-Dahdouh says.

Al-Dahdouh did not want to leave either, especially after his previous experiences of displacement to the south. But his family’s circumstances forced him to leave.

“My wife is sick and disabled, and I cannot move her from the house without assistance,” he explains. “I also have children and grandchildren.”

“If we didn’t have women and children with us, no one would have left their homes,” al-Dahdouh insists. “We would have stayed in our homes no matter the danger.”

Al-Dahdouh points out that the destruction has spread across large areas of the neighborhood, explaining that the regions of Kashko, al-Siyam, al-Sharqiya, al-Maslakh, and al-Nadim, in addition to Salah al-Din Street south of Route 8, were all destroyed in the past few days. 

The destruction has also extended to the al-Sabra neighborhood, adjacent to al-Zaytoun to the west, al-Dahdouh says. “The Israeli army is carrying out a historic leveling of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, meaning that these areas will never be rebuilt.” 

“They are being completely razed,” al-Dahdouh continues. “All their landmarks are being erased. There is no security or military objective — their sole goal is to destroy this ancient town, which has a rich history. The occupation wants to annihilate it.”

Despite the extent of the destruction and displacement, al-Dahdouh says that Gaza’s residents are still waiting for a solution to their tragedy and a return to the al-Zaytoun neighborhood. 

“As soon as I heard the news about Hamas’s acceptance of the Egyptian proposal and the possibility of a truce, I immediately tried to return to the neighborhood,” he says. “But I was surprised to find vehicles and tanks close to our homes, forcing me to retreat for fear of a tank shell or a sniper’s bullet.” He stresses that all this destruction will not deter the residents of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood from trying to return to their homes.