Gaza: when rubble becomes home
More than 560 houses have been razed and 12,800 partially damaged in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Monday
GAZA CITY
Sohaila Mansour sat down helplessly on the rubble of what was once her house in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
"We have no place else to go," the 51-year-old woman told Anadolu Agency as she sifted through the debris.
She recalled receiving a phone call from Israeli army personnel to evacuate her house in three minutes.
Mansour immediately started shouting to alert all family members of the impeding Israeli strike.
"We had hardly left when Israeli warplanes fires their missiles at the house turning it into a pile of rubble," she cried.
Israel has launched a military operation – dubbed Operation Protective Edge - with the stated goal of ending rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israeli warplanes have staged hundreds of airstrikes on the besieged enclave – home to around 1.8 million Palestinians - while ground troops remain amassed on the borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
At least 172 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli aerial attacks.
Palestinian Minister of Housing and Public Works Mufeed Al-Hassayna told AA earlier Monday that 560 houses in the Gaza Strip had been completely destroyed and 12,800 others partially damaged in the airstrikes.
Mohamed Ghannam, another Gazan, also takes shelter along with his ten family members amid the rubble of their Israel-destroyed house.
"We will continue to live here, among the debris, until such time when we can rebuild our house," he told AA.
"We will not be scared away by the Israeli warplanes," added Ghannam defiantly.
He said that by razing so many houses, Israel is only trying to drive a wedge between ordinary Palestinians and their resistance groups, including Hamas.
"This will never happen," insisted Ghannam.
Gaza-based resistance factions have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.
"We will continue to embrace Palestinian resistance factions until Palestine is liberated," said a determined Ghannam.
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