As soon as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) withdrew, the residents of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip returned to inspect their homes this week, not expecting to be so stunned by the magnitude of the devastation the invading soldiers has left behind.

The IOF had totally razed their city, rendering it unrecognisable and uninhabitable, according to local testimony. One of the residents’ first steps was to recover the dozens of dead from beneath the rubble with the aid of civil defence and rescue crews.

Although they managed to recover dozens of corpses after the IOF withdrew, it is believed that thousands more are still buried beneath the rubble, which the civil-defence teams do not have the equipment to lift.

The charred hulks of apartment blocks bear the signs of fierce fighting between the occupation forces and the Palestinian resistance. Despite the ubiquitous destruction, the residents picked their way through the wreckage to their homes and tried to rebuild their lives.

The images of Palestinians moving along the debris-strewn roads on foot or cart to Khan Younis signalled the victory of their will for survival over the Israeli genocide machine.  As soon as the IOF left, Khan Younis’ municipal work teams, braving the likelihood of unexploded ordinance and other risks, moved in to clear the roads of heavy obstructions and to facilitate the home-comers’ return.

Of all the Palestinian cities to endure indiscriminate destruction during the Israeli war on Gaza, Khan Younis has sustained the greatest damage. Satellite images reveal that some 60,000 buildings have been totally or partially destroyed.

However, the IOF’s ruthless vengeance spree against Khan Younis has failed to achieve its goals, apart from the massive destruction it has wreaked against the second-largest city in the Strip. The stated goals were to free the Israeli hostages and penetrate the resistance’s command structures, which the IOF claimed were present in the city.

They failed to achieve both. So, they took their anger out on civilians and civilian areas, committing more massacres or blowing up residential buildings.

“The occupying power withdrew without having accomplished any of its goals apart from recovering the bodies of some settlers whom the resistance had killed during the incursion into Israel,” political analyst Nidal Khadr told Al-Ahram Weekly.

“They withdrew because of the difficulties they encountered on the ground and, above all, the losses they were suffering in their ranks. Nevertheless, the occupation will continue its attacks from the air and probably mount some limited incursions into the fringes of the city.”

If Khan Younis, like other Gazan towns and neighbourhoods, has once again demonstrated its grit and survived the ferocity of the IOF’s aggression, observers add a word of caution. The battle is not over yet. The IOF could resume its ground offensive into the city as it has many times before here and elsewhere in the Strip.

The Weekly met with many citizens of Khan Younis who had been forcibly displaced multiple times.

Yaffa Fayez, 32, from west Khan Younis said “I was devastated when I found my home had been totally ruined. There are no walls or windows. But I’m going to stay here even if it isn’t suitable for habitation. It’s better than a tent. It also has some of our furniture and clothes.”

“Khan Younis is like a ghost town. They have destroyed everything that was standing – buildings, trees, and people. They have razed the streets. There is nothing left. You can smell the stench of death from beneath the rubble. It’s as though this place has been turned into a huge graveyard,” she said.

Safwat Wadi of the Hamad City residential complex in Khan Younis like many of his neighbours was dazed by how little remained of his home. Like them, too, he was grieving over the memories and the lives stolen by the IOF.

“It’s impossible to describe the amount of devastation the occupation has caused. Entire residential blocks have been ruined, and people’s homes have been levelled to the ground. It’s like the city has been hit with an earthquake,” Wadi said.

“On top of that, the occupation soldiers left graffiti insulting the Prophet Mohammed.”

He added that IOF soldiers had ransacked people’s homes, urinated on clothes or in cooking vessels, and stolen whatever valuables they could find.

Upon his return to Khan Younis, Safwat was shocked by the ubiquitous destruction. “Not a single paved street is left. They’ve all been bulldozed and turned into mud and sand. The buildings on both sides of the streets have been demolished or burnt. All that remain are skeletons,” he said.

“The IOF has destroyed the infrastructure completely. We have no telephones or communications networks or electricity grid. Obviously, the point was to set back life by centuries.”

The IOF had ordered residents of eastern Khan Younis to evacuate, claiming that it was to carry out a military operation. The residents were forced to make the precarious journey to Deir Al-Balah, Al-Nuseirat, Al-Bureij, and elsewhere in central Gaza. Now they are returning, carrying whatever meagre belongings they have with them.

However, some families defied the occupation’s evacuation order and refused to leave. Hussam recounted the ordeal of his family from the Al-Zanna quarter in eastern Khan Younis.

“We’re a family of eleven. We were in the living room when we heard the rumble of the tanks. I looked out the window and saw them 20 metres away. They surrounded us and fired at our building. Had it not been for the heavy concrete columns and the fact that we threw ourselves facedown onto the floor, we’d all be dead,” he said.

He said that they quickly crept out of the house into the backyard and fled, just before the IOF demolished their home. “When we went back to collect clothes, kitchen equipment, and other things, we found the four storeys of our house had been levelled to the ground.”

The systematic destruction of Khan Younis in southern Gaza began on 5 December with the intensification of Israel’s air and artillery bombardment of the city. Since then, there has been unceasing bombardment and shelling, much of it targeting healthcare structures such as the Nasser and Al-Amal Hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent headquarters.

The Israeli Occupation tirelessly repeats that Hamas is using these facilities for military purposes, a claim that has never been corroborated. Khan Younis seemed to come in for more than its fair share of destruction in which the IOF also used mines, bulldozers, and other equipment in its drive to deliberately bring about the Palestinians’ physical destruction in whole or in part.

Streets that were once filled with bakeries and restaurants, schools and mosques, football fields and playgrounds, shops and offices, and that were bustling with activity on the eve of the IOF invasion are now scenes of utter desolation.

Salah Hamto, 34, a returnee to Khan Younis, said that “some of the buildings have been totally destroyed and reduced to rubble. Others have serious cracks and look like they could collapse any minute. But I’m not going to leave my home, despite the damage. I will not try to find another place for me and my family with relatives whose homes have not been spared either.”

Haitham Al-Qadra was so shaken that he fell to his knees when he saw what had become of his home in the western area of Khan Younis. “The occupation was bent on killing everything here,” he said. “I never imagined that my project to build my dream home here would vanish within moments of me leaving Khan Younis in search of a safe place for my family.”

The family had fled to Mawasi. “I imagined I could return home and pick up my life again. But even my computer, which has important documents on it, was smashed. It seems as if everything in the city has ended.”

Al-Qadra managed to recover from the trauma enough to rig up some tenting over the ruins of his home. But the city lacks the conditions needed to support life, including clean water.

For Saud Muhanna, the destruction of his two-storey home in the Qarara district was a multiple tragedy. It split his family in half and led to the deaths of dozens of family members, including his mother and brother.

“Thirty five years of sweat and labour have vanished in the blink of an eye. The occupation blew up my house and turned it into rubble. Many other people have also returned to their homes to find them destroyed,” Muhanna said.

“They couldn’t stay because of the lack of drinking water and food. The main roads have to be reopened and water, emergency aid, and other necessities must be let in to all these people whose homes have been destroyed.”   

Reem Ghali, wiping away her tears, said that “everything is gone, and nothing is left. We spent our lives building our home after my father died. Now it’s gone. We’re living on the street. Even our clothes and bedding are gone. How will we go on? Where will we live? How will we eat and dress ourselves? How can life be so cruel?”

The 11-month-old Israeli genocide, carried out through aerial and artillery bombardment, blockades of food and medicine, the destruction of water and electricity supplies, and the fostering of epidemic diseases, has displaced over 95 per cent of Gaza’s population.

The Gaza Ministry of Health on Monday released an update on the casualty toll: 40,738 dead and 94,154 wounded since 7 October last year.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly