Khan Younis: ‘We Will Work Amidst The Rubble’

Families are returning to live amidst the rubble of their destroyed homes in Khan Yunis. Despite the realities of their wrecked homes they are determined to make do and eventually rebuild their destroyed homes and livelihood.

Their homes were completely destroyed by the Israeli army who sorrounded the second largest city in the Gaza Strip in early December, 2023 and continued to bomb it.

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Despite much battles, Israeli army entered the city a month later and by early March 2024, they begun to leave the city under intense fighting from the Palestinian resistance. The battle of Khan Younis will be returned because of the number of Israeli soldiers who lost their lives.

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Returnees started to comeback after the Israelis pulled out; they came mostly on foot, the odd downtrodden truck and bicycles. But they were shocked by the state of callous and raw destruction.

They couldn’t believe what happened to their homes, shops and businesses, the scale of devastation, debris and wreckage.

However, the urge to return was exhilarating and continues today. This what defines Palestinians to their land, identity, culture and belonging.

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Palestinians are determined to stay even on the top of their wrecked houses. If they could find a tent to sleep in, all well and good but if not, they would sleep in the outside air, under the sun and skies and during the day, they would use their skills, toil and labour.

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The returnees would rather come back to a Khan Younis even if is in rubble form and wreckage.

They say everywhere is the same in Gaza; they are determined to rebuild their lives even in the ruins of their shops and homes because they have the “economic niche” to continue as one watch repairman told Al Jazeera English, adding “we need to start earning a wage to be able to live.”

Khan Younis, a city of 200,000 people was completely destroyed, its homes, schools, universities and colleges and its 1387 AD Barquq Castle all completely gone thanks to Israeli bombs, missiles and guns. It graves were dug up and at least 700 people were killed by Israeli troops and thrown in hastily made mass graves out side Al Nasser Hospital.

As of late however, The Times of Gaza documents the people who are still returning to their now destroyed homes. This is “home sweet home” even in a wrecked state.

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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Israel Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza

Journalist Mohammad Saleh Al Baradawil, his wife and children, were killed in the early morning hours of   Tuesday morning as Israeli occupation planes targeted his flat in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Sources point out that Israeli planes targeted the apartment of the journalist and his family in the Emirates neighborhood in West Khan Younis where additional martyrs and injured were reported.

Baradawil is the third journalist to have been assassinated after Israel resumed its genocidal war on Gaza on 18 March, 2025 after the end of the first stage of the ceasefire agreement reached with the Israeli government.

The latest killing brings the number of Palestinian journalists targeted by Israel at 209.

With American support Israel is carrying out a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip it started soon after 7 October, 2023 with the number of those killed standing at 164,000, mostly women and children while 14,000 still buried under the rubble in the Gaza Strip.

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‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN Workers

Lifesaving supplies in Gaza continue to run dangerously low, nearly four weeks into the total aid blockade and deadly bombardment of the enclave by Israel, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

According to local health authorities in Gaza, 830 people were killed between 18-23 March, including 174 women and 322 children. A further 1,787 were injured.

“The acts of war that we see bear the hallmarks of atrocity crimes,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. “Hundreds of children and other civilians have been killed in health and Israeli airstrikes. Intensely populated areas hospitals are once again battlegrounds; patients killed in their beds, ambulances shot at, and first responders killed.”

It has been 10 days since Gazans woke up to renewed Israel bombing, abruptly ending the two-month ceasefire.

“It has been 10 days of witnessing – because the UN remains on the ground in Gaza – a callous disregard for human life and dignity,” Mr. Laerke maintained.

No to evacuations

Maryse Guimond, UN Women Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, relayed testimonies of Palestinians in Gaza who say they will not heed new evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military, on the grounds that “there are no safe places anyway”.

Speaking from Amman, she added: “It is a situation of pure survival and survival of their families because, as they say, there is simply nowhere to go…”

“As a woman recently said to us from Deir al Balah, ‘My mother says death is the same whether in Gaza City, or in Deir al Balah; we just want to return to Gaza.’”

Echoing those concerns, Dr. Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that the situation “is as bad as it ever was”. A new ceasefire is needed immediately for the sake of all Gazans, she insisted.

“We knew it was bad before the ceasefire, when we were constantly begging to be allowed to do our job just to help the ordinary people. No, they can’t keep going.”

Healthcare in the enclave is also suffering from the aid blockade, with supplies dwindling dangerously low since the cut-off began on 2 March.

“The key supplies now for safe labour and delivery…will be running out soon,” said Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the OPT.

A dozen ambulances have also been put out of action through lack of fuel, the veteran humanitarian medic said, speaking from Jerusalem.

Collective punishment warning

Sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel, the war in Gaza has devastated the enclave and prompted widespread international condemnation over its impact on civilians, who should be spared from violence in times of war.

Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” OCHA’s Mr. Laerke insisted.

“International law is clear, it prohibits indiscriminate attacks, obstruction of life saving aid, destruction of infrastructure indispensable for civilian survival and hostage-taking.

“The International Court of Justice’s provisional measures on the application of the Genocide Convention remain in place; yet the alerts that we issue in report after report reveal an utter lack of respect for the most basic principles of humanity.”

UN News

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