Obliterating Al Zeitoun – Israel’s Appetite For Destruction Boundless
CrossFireArabia- August 17, 2025
“The situation was terrifying. I clutched my daughter as we walked over shattered glass and rubble, surrounded by smoke, flames, and explosions everywhere. I ran without knowing where to go. God help us. Enough, world, enough.”
For six days, Israeli occupation forces have been razing the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, flattening approximately 400 homes with explosive-laden robots and aerial bombardment.
This wide-scale military operation mirrors similar assaults in Rafah, Khan Younis, and northern Gaza, aimed at obliterating entire communities and forcibly displacing all who remain. These actions form part of the genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Launched on 11 August, the operation represents Israel’s ongoing push to assume total and unlawful control over Gaza City. The intent is to evacuate long-standing residents and up to one million displaced individuals, most having fled northern Gaza, and confine them to isolated, small areas in the south.
Drones, specifically quadcopters, are being deployed to encircle residential blocks and coerce civilians into fleeing under armed threat. Meanwhile, ground forces advance under heavy cover fire from positions near Street 8, the Dola junction, the Barasi land and the Illiyin areas. This operation has already displaced over 90,000 residents.
Field data from Euro-Med Monitor documents targeted bombings of homes belonging to the Lubbad, al-Aidi, Dader, and Irhayyem families, resulting in nine deaths within the Irhayyem household.
Air raids also hit houses near the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, striking the homes of the Dalloul and al-Nassan families, the Bashir Siksik Company premises, and the Kuhail, Shahd, and Siyam residential towers. An attack near Al-Farouq Mosque destroyed the home of the al-Husari family, claiming four lives.
The Israeli forces demolished dozens of homes along Street 8 and at the start of the Hassan al-Banna area. Tents housing displaced members of the Hunaideq family were also bombarded, resulting in seven deaths. Additional structures impacted include those near the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS), the Al-Falah and Ain Jalut schools, and a charity-run shelter on Albasateen Street, killing eight more civilians. A strike on the Abu Daff family home resulted in 12 fatalities.
Artillery and air strikes continue to pound the areas of Hassan al-Banna, Al-Musalaba, UCAS, Al-Nadeem, and Almadaris Street. Civilians killed near Ain Jalut School and Badr Mosque (not to be confused with the one in Rafah) remain unrecovered due to ongoing bombardment. An airstrike also struck the Al-Huwaiti building in the Old City near Katib al-Wilaya Mosque, killing a mother and her young daughter, and even targeting nearby open ground.
In her testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor, 45-year-old Um Raid said: “We fled before dawn with the children, carrying nothing, as bullets whistled above our heads and bombs shook the ground, leaving behind what remained of our home and all we owned.”
Meanwhile, 33-year-old Mohammad D. described how he had no choice but to flee with his family after a “quadcopter drone” began firing randomly. He said, “I couldn’t even grab my children’s birth certificates. Aircraft roared overhead, armoured vehicles closed in, and I felt we would die if we stayed a minute longer.”
Another resident, 29-year-old Sahar L., who lived near the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, recounted, “The situation was terrifying. I clutched my daughter as we walked over shattered glass and rubble, surrounded by smoke, flames, and explosions everywhere. I ran without knowing where to go. God help us. Enough, world, enough.”
Almost half the homes in the Zeitoun neighbourhood were demolished without any documented military necessity, as no fighting had recently taken place there. The destruction was caused by the systematic use of automatic explosives and explosive-laden robots after residents had been forcibly displaced. This pattern shows the intent was not military but to erase infrastructure and force Palestinians into displacement.
The widespread destruction in Zeitoun, the largest neighbourhood in Gaza, is part of a deliberate Israeli policy: completing a campaign of genocide and erasing Palestinian urban life through the total destruction of homes, infrastructure, and access to basic livelihoods.
The international community, including the United Nations and global legal bodies, must intervene urgently to halt the massacres, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for these heinous crimes against the civilian population.
Israel’s ongoing attacks and territorial expansion threaten to unleash unprecedented mass slaughter in Gaza, destroying the already fragile humanitarian response and cementing a new chapter of systemic Israeli genocide. These attacks are not sudden battlefield escalations but calculated policies, and the international community, through its silence, financial backing, and political cover, bears full responsibility for the resulting crimes and tragedies.
States and organisations must exert maximum pressure on Israel to halt the crime of starvation and immediately push for the resumption of humanitarian access by ending the illegal siege of the Gaza Strip. This is the only way to stem the fast-deteriorating humanitarian crisis and ensure the entry of essential aid and supplies amid the looming threat of famine.
Safe humanitarian corridors, under UN supervision, must be established to guarantee the delivery of food, medicine, and fuel to all parts of the Strip, with independent international monitors deployed to ensure compliance. At the same time, rapid rehabilitation of Gaza’s agricultural and livestock sectors must begin as part of both emergency relief and long-term recovery efforts.
All States, individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal obligations and act urgently to stop this genocide in Gaza, taking every feasible measure to protect Palestinian civilians there. They must enforce Israel’s adherence to international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice and hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.
This includes, without waiver, enforcing the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Minister of Defence at the earliest opportunity and surrendering them to international justice, upholding the principle that no one is immune from prosecution for international crimes.
Dr Khairi Janbek
