Palestinian returns to his area in Gaza but hardly locates his home

By Ramzy Mahmoud

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - As Palestinian Tamer Kaskeen managed to return to his neighborhood in Gaza City, it was hard for him to locate the site of his destroyed home due to Israel's devastating onslaught against the Gaza Strip.

When he identified the location of his destroyed home, Kaskeen, 50, drowned in tears over the loss of his home.

His neighborhood, known as Almukhabarat towers area, northern Gaza City, came under heavy Israeli ground attacks that destroyed almost all buildings and infrastructure.

Kaskeen and his family became homeless amid the cold weather in Gaza, and lost hope to return to their home after the end of the war.

"I thought I could return to my home, to find a room inside, but I found nothing, I can't stop shedding tears," Kaskeen told Anadolu.

"The house of my neighbors -- Al-Ghoul family -- was not destroyed but was fully set on fire. It also became useless and the family fears to stay in it as its cement became weak," he also said.

He added that he worked for years to build his house and suddenly in a matter of a day, it was gone. "Should I wait 10 years for its rebuilding, when will my turn come? (for its rebuilding)"

On the food and medicine in the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, he said: "There is no medicine and food for our children at the moment, we can bear such circumstances, but the children's immunity is weak. ... The Israeli occupation is fighting the children and women."

Kaskeen said he tried to shelter his family in one of the buildings in the area which is still under construction in the northern Gaza Strip.

"I am tired, I don't know what to do, I went to schools but found them destroyed, I went to the Egyptian towers but they were also destroyed," he said.

The Israeli army left a wide scale of destruction in the areas it had attacked, as appeared after their withdrawal from several areas in the northern Gaza Strip.

Following the Israeli army's withdrawal from northern Gaza, Palestinians posted videos on social media showing the scale of destruction in the area of buildings still under construction by Egypt in the northern parts of the enclave.

On Thursday, the Israeli army withdrew from several areas in northern Gaza City and northern areas of the Gaza Strip for the first time since the start of its military ground operation on Oct. 27.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, killing at least 27,585 Palestinians and injuring 66,978 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar