It’s perhaps the most dramatic wound inflicted on the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military campaign over the past three years: The city of Rafah, once home to a quarter million people, has been erased.
asserted
city → ’ → people
Satellite imagery shows the Israeli military has systematically razed the southern city and other towns and districts to the ground and in some places plowed away the rubble.
asserted
military → show → rubble
Demolition, using bulldozers and explosives, has continued unabated since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal reached a year ago, as the military solidifies its hold over the around 60% of the territory that it still controls.
asserted
it → use → that
Gaza’s mangled landscape is just one of the wounds on top of wounds that the enclave’s 2 million Palestinians have endured since Israel launched its campaign to destroy Hamas after the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
asserted
Israel → endure → Israel
More than one out of every 10 people from Gaza’s prewar population has been killed or wounded by Israeli fire.
asserted
people → kill → fire
While nearly every family mourns dead or cares for wounded, most also had to move multiple times to escape fighting and Israeli evacuation orders.
asserted
most → mourn → fighting
Ramshackle canvas and nylon shelters blanket beaches and former agricultural lands and fill empty lots.
asserted
shelters → blanket → lots
Little is likely to change for the foreseeable future.
asserted
Little → change → future
While the ceasefire deal stopped the offensives and heaviest bombardment, Israel hits tents, cars and buildings almost daily in strikes that it says target Hamas members — but that regularly kill women, children and other family members.
asserted
that → stop → women
People no longer have to flee from place to place, but few can rebuild homes because Israel bars most construction material from entering Gaza.
asserted
Israel → have → Gaza
The ceasefire agreement’s plan for the large-scale reconstruction of Gaza has never gotten off the ground because Israel and Hamas have failed to reach a deal on disarming the militant group.
asserted
Israel → get → group
In the meantime, Palestinians wrestle with tragedy
Najwa Abu Eita lost her 7-year-old daughter when Israeli forces struck her home in the central refugee camp of Nuseirat in September 2024, and her three other children were injured in the attack.
asserted
children → wrestle → attack
Abu Eita lost an eye, her face remains heavily damaged and scarred, and she has trouble breathing.
asserted
she → lose → trouble
A hairdresser before the war, she now has no work, living in a tent by the ruins of her home.
asserted
she → have → home
Worst of all, she says, her children are frightened by her face and avoid looking at her.
asserted
children → say → her
“My 4-year-old son tells me, ‘Momma, I’ll give you one of my eyes.’
asserted
I → tell → eyes
And inside, I’m weeping,” she said.
asserted
she → weep → ?
On the Israeli-held side, destruction continues
Gaza’s population is squeezed into about 40% of the tiny territory, and Israel’s military controls the rest.
asserted
military → hold → rest
Satellite imagery by Planet Labs PBC shows that the vast majority of buildings in the Israel-held part have been bulldozed or exploded down to piles of rubble, much of it after major fighting ended a year ago.
asserted
fighting → show → it
The Israeli military says it demolishes buildings to prevent their use by Hamas militants or to destroy the group’s tunnel networks.
asserted
it → say → networks
But a U.N.-appointed expert said in a February report that the scale of destruction of civilian housing and infrastructure in Gaza “is unprecedented even by the terrible standards of modern warfare since the 20th century.”
asserted
scale → say → century
The report warned that it could constitute a crime against humanity or reach the level of genocide, which under international law includes “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.”
uncertain
which → warn → destruction
Israel rejects accusations of genocide, saying it targets Hamas militants and their infrastructure that are interwoven with civilian areas.
asserted
that → reject → areas
The Planet Labs imagery shows at least 50 Israeli military outposts built throughout the Israeli-held part of Gaza, at least 18 of them constructed since the ceasefire began.
asserted
ceasefire → show → them
Many have been put on top of former neighborhoods where the rubble of demolished buildings nearby has been cleared away.
asserted
rubble → put → buildings
Most of Rafah was razed before the ceasefire, but images show that troops continue to demolish the few remaining buildings.
asserted
troops → raze → buildings
Several abandoned U.N. buildings have been spared, as well as a municipal sports field that now appears to contain a military base.
A new base also stands on what was once the main intersection of the southern town of Beni Suhaila.
asserted
what → abandon → Suhaila
Leveled over the past year, the town is now a wasteland intersected by a spiderweb of dirt paths that were once streets.
asserted
that → level → paths
In Jabaliya in the north, most of the al-Awda Hospital Complex was reduced to rubble in recent months, as were a number of U.N.-run school buildings, satellite images show.
asserted
images → reduce → buildings
Jabaliya was once home to the Gaza Strip’s biggest refugee camp, home to some 120,000 refugees and tens of thousands of other residents in a densely built urban district.
asserted
Jabaliya → build → district
Now one of the few buildings still standing is the octagonal-shaped Indonesian Hospital, empty since troops shut it down in June 2025.
asserted
troops → stand → June
The Israeli military built a new base nearby.
asserted
military → build → base
Similarly, most of Beit Hanoun, once a town of some 70,000 people in Gaza’s far northeast corner, and Shijaiya, a Gaza City neighborhood founded 800 years ago, are now block after block of leveled houses and apartment towers.
asserted
most → found → houses
Gaza’s economy has been wrecked
asserted
economy → wreck → ?
An increased flow of aid and commercial products brought Gaza back from famine that arose in some areas last year under a monthslong Israeli ban on food and other goods.
asserted
that → increase → food
But most of the population remains dependent on international relief.
asserted
most → remain → relief
Jobs are few, mostly connected to selling in the market.
asserted
Jobs → connect → market
Shadi Barawi lost his father early in the war.
asserted
Barawi → lose → war
Soon after that, Barawi was hit by shrapnel from a strike near his home in Gaza City, and his leg was amputated — one of some 6,000 amputees left by the war.
asserted
leg → hit → war
After losing his leg, “I lost all hope in life,” the 35-year-old said.
asserted
old → lose → life
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
