Gaza City's Shujaiya 'destroyed, in ruins' following intense Israeli assault

The Gaza City neighbourhood of Shujaiya is now more or less completely destroyed, after being relentlessly targeted by Israeli forces amid the army’s latest intensified offensive in the enclave.

Residents who returned to the neighbourhood after Israeli troops withdrew on July 11, described seeing "no homes left and everything bulldozed", as well as bodies "laying on the ground", many severely decomposed.

The lack of livable space in the eastern neighbourhood has now forced many residents to west of Gaza City, after they returned to rubble following Israel's assaults.

The military operation, which lasted two weeks, has now turned the neighbourhood into ruins, journalist Amjad Yaghi writing for Al-Araby Al-Jadeed’s, The New Arab’s Arabic-language site.

The offensive targeted entire residential blocks, bulldozed streets, and struck infrastructure along some of the most important routes that connect Shujaiya with other streets and neighbourhoods in Gaza City.

Residents described the difficulty of seeing destroyed clothes and belongings owned by neighbours or loved ones who had left them in Shujaiya without knowing their fate. Others found ruined and blody clothes in the street, with possible signs that those who owned them were executed.

One witness, Mohammed Hajjaj, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that he was able to identify his friend’s almost-decomposed body by the torn black and white shirt he was wearing, at the time of his killing.

"The neighbourhood entered the stage of destruction at the beginning of last year in December, but many homes were still standing even though they were partially destroyed. Now most homes have been levelled, which we have completely lost," Hajjaj said.

"Now we are lost, and we have left for the western area of Gaza," he added.

Another Shujaiya resident, Ahmed Halas, said: "The entire neighbourhood was bulldozed and all that remained was dirt, no house and no features of the [area] in which I lived. They demolished my heart and my memories."

Gaza’s government office estimates that 70 percent of the neighbourhood’s buildings have been destroyed.

Shujaiya, one of Gaza City's most densely-populated and largest neighbourhoods, has been the target of several offensives and massacres since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 39,006 Palestinians as of Monday in over nine months.

The eastern neighbourhood has long been considered to be a stronghold of Palestinian resistance against Israel, with the army taking significant losses in the area in the current war, and during previous ones. 

Yaghi previously said that Shujaiya's nickname is "The Guard", due to it occupying a protective position to the east of Gaza City.