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Jabaliya Gaza City Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Khan Younis Egypt Jabaliya Gaza City Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Khan Younis Egypt Jabaliya Gaza City Gaza Strip Mediterranean Sea Israel Khan Younis EgyptGaza in Ruins After a Year of War Much of Gaza has been destroyed by Israel’s relentless military campaign. Sea Gaza Strip Israel Egypt Gaza City 74% of buildings have been likely damaged or destroyed. Gaza City, the strip’s capital, is home to the ancient Old City, as well as Al-Rimal, a once-vibrant, upper-middle-class neighborhood. Omar Al-Mukhtar Street, Gaza City Before Fouad Abu JasserThe park was a gathering place for rallies and protests. Omar Al-Mukhtar Street, Gaza City After AFPNot far away, the Rashaad Shawa center, which housed the oldest library in the Gaza Strip, has been severely damaged.

Persons: Khan, Khan Younis, Israel Egypt Khan Younis, Abu Kayan, Mamdouh Aljbour, ”, Ahmed Abu, Bilal Shbair, Belal Barbakh, Barbakh, Hamada, Sisters Asan, Elan, Abdulraouf Barbakh, “, Barbakh’s, Jamal Subuh’s, Subuh, Jamal, Jamal Subuh, nourishing Gazans, Dina, Reuters Ahmed Abu Sultan, Mr, Abu Sultan, —, Omari, Omar Al, Mukhtar, Riyad Al, Masri, Al, Rimal, Gazans, Fouad Abu Jasser, Shawerma Al, Sheikh Omar Al, wasn’t, Ahmed Emqat, Ihsan Abdo, Husam Skeek, Jabaliya, Nahed Al, Fatima Hussein, Ahmed Jawda, Assali, Jawda Organizations: Hamas, Cream, Citadel, Sisters, Facebook, Agricultural Organization, Byzantine, Reuters, Reuters Al, AFP, Palestine, Med, Israel Egypt Jabaliya, AFP Al, Times, Bank, Gazans Locations: Israel, Gaza, Egypt, Khan Younis Egypt Gaza, New York City, Gaza City, Med, Israel Egypt, Khan, Facebook, Farra, Jamal, Israel Egypt Gaza, Old City, Gaza . Old City, Omari, Al, Aqsa, Jerusalem, Riyad, Palestine, Gazans, Jabaliya, Jabaliya’s Al

☆ In Gaza, Even Poetry and Toilets Aren’t Safe From Thieves
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-03 | by ( Bilal Shbair | Erika Solomon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As he perused a market selling everything from stolen children’s shoes to battered plumbing pipes, Mahmoud al-Jabri was surprised to find something familiar: his own book collection. Among the collection was his first published work of poems, with his handwriting scrawled along the margins. Even more shocking than seeing the book he had toiled for years to create was that the vendor wanted a paltry 5 shekels, or about $1, for it. The salesman suggested using the pages for kindling. “I was torn between two feelings,” he said, “laughter and bitterness.”

Persons: Mahmoud al, Jabri, “, ”

2In the background of the page, a satellite image of Nuseirat shows the location of a building with 1 hostage, and a nearby building with 3 hostages. On June 8, Israel conducted one of the most high-risk operations of the war — a rescue in broad daylight of four hostages held by Hamas in Nuseirat, a densely populated area. Israel achieved that goal, but within minutes, the operation escalated into a firefight and a series of airstrikes that killed scores of people. The Israeli military said it came under fire by Hamas and ordered the strikes. The New York Times was not able to verify which came first.

Persons: Israel Organizations: New York Times Locations: Nuseirat, Israel

Bleeding and crying, Dr. Hani Bseso’s teenage niece Ahed called out for him as she slipped in and out of consciousness. A shell had ripped into their home, which had been surrounded by Israeli troops as fighting raged outside that December day. It was too dangerous to make the five-minute drive to Al-Shifa Hospital, where Dr. Bseso, 52, worked in orthopedics. So he grabbed a kitchen knife, scissors and sewing string — then amputated Ahed’s leg on the kitchen table, where her mother had just made bread. With “no tools, no anesthetic, nothing,” he explained, “I had to find a way to save her life.”

Persons: Hani Bseso’s, Ahed, Bseso, ”, “ Organizations: Shifa Locations: orthopedics

“I was lying on the ground of the tent and told my son ‘May God save us from this night,’” he recalled. Hamas had launched rockets at central Israel hours earlier, setting off air-raid sirens in the Tel Aviv area for the first time in months. Israel’s military said the barrage had been fired from Rafah — the city in southern Gaza where Israeli forces were advancing and Mr. al-Hila was sheltering with his family in a camp for displaced people. And it did — Israel’s military fired back and said it had destroyed the launcher used in the rocket volley, which was not near the camp. But a few hours later, Israel struck again, dropping two 250-pound bombs on temporary structures in the camp.

Persons: Saleh Mohammed al, “, ‘, ’ ”, Israel Organizations: Hamas Locations: Israel, Tel Aviv, Rafah, Gaza

☆ After Weeks of Planning, Seconds Made the Difference in Israeli Hostage Rescue
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-10 | by ( Bilal Shbair | Ronen Bergman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the four Israelis woke up in Gaza on Saturday, they had been held hostage by Hamas for 245 days. The buildings in which they were being kept, two low-rise, concrete apartment blocks, looked much like the other nearby residences in a civilian neighborhood full of Palestinian families. Within a few hours, the captives, three men and one woman, would be reunited with their own families, the result of a risky, long-planned rescue operation in which the full might of the Israeli military would be used to devastating effect. “I’m so emotional,” one hostage, Noa Argamani, 26, told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a phone call after her release. “It’s been so long since I heard Hebrew.”The rescue effort in Nuseirat involved hundreds of intelligence officers and two teams of commandos who simultaneously stormed the homes in which the hostages were being held, the Israeli military said.

Persons: “, Noa Argamani, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, “ It’s Locations: Gaza

A day after the Israeli military rescued four hostages held by Hamas militants in Nuseirat, Gazans described an intense bombardment during the raid, followed by chaos in the streets from an operation that killed and wounded scores of Palestinians. Bayan Abu Amr, 32, was carrying her 18-month-old son Mohammad on the edge of Nuseirat’s main marketplace on Saturday when she was surrounded by the heavy booms of strikes from aircraft, which Israel’s military said targeted militants in an effort to ensure the safe extraction of the hostages and special forces. “People were rushing like the day of judgment; I did not know where to run,” said Ms. Abu Amr, who was on her way to pay a condolence call to her uncle’s family after two of his sons had died. “Kids were screaming, women were falling down while running.”Along with other Gazans, she managed to clamber onto a passing pickup truck that was trying to ferry people safely out amid the strikes, she recalled. One girl was separated from her mother in the confusion, while an old man lost his grip and fell off the truck onto the ground, she said.

Persons: Gazans, Bayan Abu Amr, Mohammad, ”, Abu Amr Organizations: Hamas, “ Locations: Nuseirat

☆ Israel’s Euphoria Over Hostage Rescue May Be Fleeting
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-09 | by ( Isabel Kershner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Other video footage showed people running for cover as a powerful airstrike exploded near them. Many of those killed were women and children, the hospital officials said. Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, estimated the number of casualties to be under 100, without specifying whether these were dead or wounded or both. Hours later some of the dead had already been buried by their families while others had yet to be claimed, according to Dr. Daqran. “The Apache started to bomb and fire directly at people,” he said, according to Reuters, adding that there were many dead and injured.

Persons: Israel, Khalil Daqran, Marwan Abu Nasser, Daniel Hagari, Daqran, “, ”, Khaled al, Khitam Awad, Ms, Awad, Al Awda, “ Al, Abu Nasser, Bilal Shbair Organizations: Al, Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, New York Times, Hamas, Reuters, “, Gaza Health Ministry Locations: Nuseirat, Gaza, Aqsa, Deir al, Rafah, Israel, Al Aqsa, “ Al Awda

A day after Israeli forces bombed a U.N. school complex in central Gaza that had become a shelter for displaced Palestinians, some of the facts remain unclear or under contention. The multistory building was one of several that made up the UNRWA Nuseirat Boys’ Preparatory School. It was one of the many schools in Gaza run by the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Like all of the territory’s schools, it stopped operating as a school in October, after Hamas led an assault on Israel, and Israel began its retaliatory bombing campaign. Philippe Lazzarini, the director of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, said 6,000 people had been living in the school.

Persons: Israel, Philippe Lazzarini Organizations: UNRWA, Boys ’ Preparatory, Israel Locations: Gaza, Israel, Nuseirat

☆ ‘Mama! Mama!’ Israeli Strike Sets Off Chaos at Gazan Hospital
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Bilal Shbair | Erika Solomon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As dawn broke on Thursday, Haitham Abu Ammar combed through the rubble of the school that had become a shelter to him and thousands of other displaced Gazans. For hours, he helped people piece together the limbs of the ones they loved. “The most painful thing I have ever experienced was picking up those pieces of flesh with my hands,” said Mr. Abu Ammar, a 27-year-old construction worker. “I never thought I would have to do such a thing.”Early on Thursday, Israeli airstrikes hit the school complex, killing dozens of people — among them at least nine militants, the Israeli military said. Over the course of the day, corpses and mangled limbs recovered from the rubble were wrapped in blankets, stacked in truck beds and driven to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last major medical facility still operating in central Gaza.

Persons: Haitham Abu Ammar, ”, Abu Ammar, “, Al Organizations: Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Locations: Al Aqsa, Gaza

☆ Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Patrick Kingsley | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The men sat in rows, handcuffed and blindfolded, unable to see the Israeli soldiers who stood watch over them from the other side of a mesh fence. They were barred from talking more loudly than a murmur, and forbidden to stand or sleep except when authorized. They were all cut off from the outside world, prevented for weeks from contacting lawyers or relatives. This was the scene one afternoon in late May at a military hangar inside Sde Teiman, an army base in southern Israel that has become synonymous with the detention of Gazan Palestinians. Most Gazans captured since the start of the war on Oct. 7 have been brought to the site for initial interrogation, according to the Israeli military.

Persons: Gazans Locations: Israel

After eight months of devastating bombardment by Israeli forces, some Gazans are urging Hamas to accept a cease-fire plan outlined by President Biden, but many remain deeply skeptical that the United States, as Israel’s chief ally, would truly bring an end to the war. “I am hopeful that Hamas will accept this deal,” said Ayman Skeik, a 31-year-old merchant driven out of his home in Gaza City by the fighting. “But I am still scared it would not be achieved.”Like other Gazans, Mr. Skeik, who is now sheltering in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, said he had grown frustrated by the long and generally fruitless cease-fire talks. He noted pointedly that months ago, in February, Mr. Biden suggested that a deal was imminent. “The United States used to have a strong word when it wanted to stop any crisis in the world,” Mr. Skeik said.

Persons: President Biden, “, ”, Ayman Skeik, Skeik, Biden, Mr Organizations: Mr, White Locations: United States, Gaza City, Deir al, Gaza, Israel

For weeks, the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city, Rafah, was one of the few places where desperate Gazans could find some aid and food. Bakeries sold bread; fuel powered generators; markets were open, if expensive. But since Israeli forces began an incursion in the city this month — effectively closing the two main crossings where aid enters — Rafah has become a place of fear and dwindling supplies. “There’s always something missing in the tent,” said Ahmed Abu al-Kas, 51, who is sheltering in Rafah with his family. “If we have bread, we don’t have water.

Persons: “ There’s, ”, Ahmed Abu al Locations: Gaza, Rafah, Kas

☆ Under Israeli Bombs, a Wartime Economy Emerges in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

On tables and desks from schools turned shelters, wartime vendors lined a street, selling used clothes, baby formula, canned food and the rare batch of homemade cookies. Issam Hamouda, 51, stood next to his paltry commercial offering: an array of canned vegetables and beans from an aid carton his family had received. “Most of the goods found in the markets are labeled, ‘Not for sale,’” he said. Before the Israel-Hamas war devastated Gaza’s economy, he was a driving instructor. Now, Mr. Hamouda supports his family of eight the only way he can — by reselling some of the food aid they receive every few weeks.

Persons: Issam Hamouda, ’ ”, Hamouda Locations: Israel

Israel said on Thursday that it would send more troops to Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, which has become the focal point in the war between Israel and Hamas. The announcement signaled that Israel intends to press deeper into Rafah despite international concerns about the threat to civilians from a full-scale invasion of the city, where more than a million displaced people had been sheltering. “Hundreds of targets have already been attacked,” Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said after meeting with commanders in the Rafah area. “This operation will continue.”For the past week Israel has described its offensive as a limited military operation, but satellite imagery and Mr. Gallant’s comments on Thursday suggested that a more significant incursion was already underway.

Persons: Israel, ” Yoav Gallant, Gallant’s Organizations: Hamas Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Israel, “

Around 300,000 Palestinians in southern and northern Gaza are being forced to flee once again, the United Nations says, as Israel issued new and expanded evacuation orders on Saturday. But many are unsure where to find secure shelter in a place devastated by war. The expanded evacuation orders apply to the city of Rafah at Gaza’s southernmost tip, where more than a million Gazans have gathered after fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere over the past seven months. Some 150,000 people have already fled Rafah over the past six days, according to UNRWA, the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians. “Fear, confusion, oppression, anxiety is eating away at people.”

Persons: “, ”, Mohammad al, Masri Organizations: Nations, United Nations Locations: Gaza, Israel, Rafah

☆ People Leaving Rafah Describe Fearful Flight From Israeli Assaults
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Displaced from their home in Gaza City months ago, Ms. al-Wakeel and relatives began packing their bags on Monday and preparing to dismantle their tent in Rafah, at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. Hamas had announced that it had accepted a cease-fire proposal from Qatar and Egypt, leaving many Gazans thinking that a truce was imminent. Instead, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in eastern Rafah telling people to flee and move to what Israel called a humanitarian zone to the north, as the Israeli military bombarded the area. Gazan health officials say that dozens have been killed since Israel’s incursion into parts of Rafah this week. “We thought that day a cease-fire was possible,” said Ms. al-Wakeel, 48, who helped the aid group World Central Kitchen prepare hot meals.

Persons: Manal, Israel, ”, Abu Yousef al, Marwan al Organizations: Hamas, Najjar Locations: Gaza, Rafah, Qatar, Egypt, Israel, Hams

☆ U.N. General Assembly Adopts Resolution Supporting Palestinian Statehood
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The United States voted no. The 193-member General Assembly took on the issue of Palestinian membership after the United States in April vetoed a resolution before the Security Council to recognize full membership for a Palestinian state. The majority of Council members supported the move, but the United States said recognition of Palestinian statehood should be achieved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians are currently recognized by the United Nations as a nonmember observer state, a status granted in 2012 by the General Assembly. They do not have the right to vote on General Assembly resolutions or nominate any candidates to U.N. agencies.

Persons: ”, Richard Gowan, Riyad Mansour, Gilad Erdan, Nate Evans, Gilad, Israel’s, Yahya Sinwar, Mr, Mansour Organizations: United Nations General Assembly, United Nations, United, United Arab Emirates, . Arab, Security, Washington, Security Council, International Crisis, Palestinian, ”, U.S, General Locations: Israel, United States, Palestinian, France, Gaza, U.S, South Sudan, Taiwan, Kosovo, Palestine, United

☆ With Schools in Ruins, Education in Gaza Will Be Hobbled for Years
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Liam Stack | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Amjad Abu Daqqa was among the top students at his school in Khan Younis, excelling in math and English, and he was applying for a scholarship to study in the United States when war erupted in the Gaza Strip last October. Teachers used to reward his good grades with trips to local historical sites or to the pier, where they would watch boats and take pictures of the sunset. He dreamed of going into medicine like his big sister, Nagham, who studied dentistry in Gaza City. But his old life and old dreams now feel far away. “I feel like I am a body without a soul, and I want to feel hopeful again.”

Persons: Amjad Abu Daqqa, Khan Younis, Nagham, ”, Amjad Locations: United States, Gaza, Gaza City, Rafah

☆ Trapped and Starving, 2 Families in Gaza Try to Keep Their Children Alive
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Vivian Yee | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Born in wartime, the baby had not eaten in more than a day, his father said — no formula, no nothing. The baby, Jihad, and his parents, Nour Barda and Heba al-Arqan, were trapped now in a storage closet with five other people at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza last month as Israeli troops attacked. The Israeli military had surrounded the building and told anyone sheltering inside to stay put. All his parents could do now was sit and watch their son go hungry. Hungry herself, Ms. al-Arqan had no breast milk to give.

Persons: —, Nour Barda, Heba, Barda, Shifa, Jihad, Arqan Organizations: Shifa Locations: Al, Gaza

☆ He Wanted to Serve His Community in Gaza. He Paid With His Life.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Liam Stack | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Saifeddin Abutaha, an aid worker for World Central Kitchen, was on his way home to see his mother when an Israeli missile struck the car he was driving in a humanitarian convoy last week. Mr. Abutaha, 25, doted on his parents, and he texted them frequently while out delivering aid across the Gaza Strip, which is on the brink of famine after six months of war. In his final hours, he had pivoted between delivering food and making family Ramadan plans, his brother, Abdul Raziq Abutaha, said in an interview. 1, their mother, Inshirah — who once daydreamed of seeing Saifeddin get married — has been unable to accept that he is gone. “She still has not eaten anything since he died,” said Abdul Raziq, 33.

Persons: Saifeddin Abutaha, Abutaha, doted, Abdul Raziq Abutaha, Inshirah —, Saifeddin, —, ”, Abdul Raziq, “, Saif Locations: Israeli, Gaza

Every night during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the man would come along Rawoand Altatar’s street, banging on his drum and calling out to the faithful to wake them up for suhoor, the predawn meal. His nightly mission used to be lit up by Ramadan lamps and twinkling decorations. But this Ramadan, Ms. Altatar’s street is eerie. There are no decorations or electricity, and the street is surrounded by buildings destroyed or damaged in Israel’s bombardment. “There is no sense of Ramadan,” she said, referring to the month when Muslims fast all day.

Persons: ”, Altatar Organizations: suhoor Locations: Altatar’s

☆ ‘Everything Is Difficult’: The Struggle for Life’s Basics in Rafah
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Bilal Shbair | Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

More than one million Palestinians fled into Rafah, the southernmost region of Gaza, hoping to escape the war. Now, Israel has threatened to extend its invasion there, too. Amid days filled with struggles to secure food, water and shelter, uncertainty has dominated people’s conversations, said Khalid Shurrab, a charity worker staying with his family in a leaky tent in Rafah. “We have two options, either to stay as we are or face our destiny — death,” said Mr. Shurrab, 36. It is where most of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have ended up, multiplying the area’s population and exhausting its limited resources.

Persons: Khalid Shurrab, ”, Shurrab Organizations: “ Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Israel, “, ” Rafah

It is all too easy to trace the skull beneath the Gazan boy’s face, the pallid skin stretching tight over every curve of bone and sagging with every hollow. The pictures of Yazan circulating on social media have quickly made him the face of starvation in Gaza. Five months into Israel’s campaign against Hamas and its siege of Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are close to starvation, United Nations officials say. At least 20 Palestinian children have died from malnutrition and dehydration, according to Gazan health officials. Like Yazan, who required medicines that were in acutely short supply in Gaza, many of those who died also suffered from health conditions that further placed their lives at risk, health officials said.

Persons: Yazan Kafarneh, Yazan, Gazans Organizations: Hamas, United Nations Locations: Gaza

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