From an embankment overlooking Gaza City, there's no hiding what this war has done. The Gaza of maps and memories is gone, replaced by a monochrome landscape of rubble stretching flat and still for 180 degrees, from Beit Hanoun on one side to Gaza City on the other.
Beyond the distant shapes of buildings still standing inside Gaza City, there's almost nothing left to orient you here, or identify the neighborhoods that once held tens of thousands of people. This was one of the first areas Israeli ground troops entered in the early weeks of the war. Since then, they have been back multiple times, as Hamas regrouped around its strongholds in the area.
Israel does not allow news organizations to report independently from Gaza. Today it took a group of journalists, including the BBC, into the area of the Strip occupied by Israeli forces. The brief visit was highly controlled and offered no access to Palestinians, or other areas of Gaza. Military censorship laws in Israel mean that military personnel were shown our material before publication. The BBC maintained editorial control of this report at all times.
Asked about the level of destruction in the area we visited, Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said it was 'not a goal'. 'The goal is to combat terrorists. Almost every house had a tunnel shaft or was booby-trapped or had an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or sniper station,' he stated.
More than 1,100 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, and since then, more than 68,000 Gazans have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The situation on the ground remains tense and critical, with ongoing searches for hostages and daily skirmishes reported along the borders.
The ceasefire has faltered twice already. Despite the fragile truce, Israeli forces assert they are committed to eradicating the threat posed by Hamas while being pushed to adhere to the US-led peace deal.
The tragedy of Gaza lays bare questions of sovereignty, recovery, and what the future holds for a populace yearning for peace but surrounded by ruins.
