The Electronic Intifada 22 March 2025
People break their Ramadan fast in Rafah where 90 percent of neighbourhoods have been totally or partially destroyed.
APA imagesAmal Kassab lost her son Ahmad, 18, to an Israeli military attack on 19 January, the first day of the so-called ceasefire in January.
Ahmad had set out from the al-Mawasi camp west of Khan Yunis where the family had sought shelter to check on their home in Rafah.
“He said goodbye and told me that we would meet in Rafah and asked me to wait for his call to tell me how the house was, whether it was okay or destroyed,” Amal said during an interview in February. “I waited for him.”
Ahmad never called.
Instead, his mother rushed to Nasser Medical Complex after a friend said he had been injured. When she got there, her husband told her that Ahmad had been martyred and to pray for him.
“This is a cowardly army that kills our children,” Amal said. ”I will never forgive a world that has remained silent about our killing.”
The Israeli army is heavily concentrated along and around the Philadelphi corridor – the area hugging the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
And while Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire this week, its military never left. Indeed, fear over the Israeli army’s continuing presence in the Philadelphi area, where some 90 percent of neighborhoods have been totally or partially destroyed, has made displaced residents hesitant to return to it or the center of Rafah.
By 1 March, according to local authorities, over 40 people had been killed in Rafah since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January and before Israel tore it up.
Ahmad al-Soufi, the mayor of Rafah said the entire city is a disaster area and with snipers still present, many had simply not tried to come home.
“Life is non-existent in Rafah for several reasons, including both the presence of the Israeli army and the many areas in the city that are dangerous. Citizens cannot reach their areas safely and few return for fear of Israeli snipers,” al-Soufi said.
A ghost area
Reem Shalouf, 35, also tried to go home as soon as the ceasefire came into force. The devastation in her area was so comprehensive, however, that had she known, she said, she would not have bothered.
“I ran like a ten-year-old girl when they announced the ceasefire. Two days later, I left.”
As she made her way there, people shouted out warnings of the potential danger from unexploded ordinances, falling debris and Israeli army snipers.
“I saw a ghost area, not a residential area,” Reem said. “There were no landmarks left, just piles of rubble everywhere.”
Reem’s 8-year-old daughter Lara had asked her to bring back a Barbie doll her father had given her for her birthday one month before the Israeli attacks began in October 2023. She knew right away, however, when approaching her neighborhood that she would never find her daughter’s toy.
“I returned to Mawasi Khan Younis in shock, and I am still devastated about what I saw,” Reem told The Electronic Intifada. “My heart aches as it does for many of the city’s residents.”
For now she has decided to wait in Khan Younis with her three children.
And with Israel resuming its genocide in Gaza two months after agreeing to a ceasefire, when she will be able to return remains entirely up in the air.
The damage in Rafah is enormous, and a massive reconstruction effort is needed before the city is fit for return. Mayor al-Soufi said the city needs 150,000 housing units for those who lost their homes, and the equipment to clean and rebuild.
“There is also a severe shortage of the equipment and heavy machinery that helps municipal workers remove rubble, open streets and restore such basic services as water to some areas; the infrastructure is completely destroyed.”
Al-Soufi said it is is these and other needs that have led him, along with other Palestinians to call on foreign governments and international aid agencies to provide relief to the disaster-stricken city of Rafah so that citizens can return.
“These attacks will not deter us from continuing our duty towards our city and our people. We will continue to work, and we will restore life to Rafah, no matter the cost,” the mayor said.
Ruwaida Amer is a journalist in Gaza.
