Urban neighborhood in northern Gaza reduced to rubble by Israeli forces

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The few buildings still standing in this expanse of northern Gaza protrude from the earth like broken bones. Around them, what was once a dense, urban neighborhood has been blown up, knocked down or otherwise crushed into debris and dust.

The Israeli military on Wednesday led an AP photographer and other journalists on a tour of an area on the eastern edge of Gaza City leveled in an effort to demolish infrastructure it says was a base for Hamas militants.

The obliteration of Shijaiya, a sprawling neighborhood within sight of a kibbutz targeted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war, is part of a larger campaign. Since January the military has been systematically flattening neighborhoods in northern Gaza, Rafah in the southernmost part of the Palestinian territory and in nearby Khan Younis, satellite photos show.

“What we need to do in these areas is we want to make sure it’s a terror-free zone, that Hamas does not return to this area,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told journalists during the visit.

“An area cannot be rebuilt if it’s a terror infrastructure and you cannot rebuild an area if there’s a tunnel 100 meters deep beneath the house or beneath the rubble,” he said.

Shoshani said that even recently militants had worked to set up new weaponry in the area. During Wednesday’s two-hour visit to the area, there was no sign of anyone except for Israeli soldiers, one in a T-shirt printed with a slogan spelling out their mission.

“Hamas Hunting Club,” it said, over a graphic of a military boot pressing down on the skeleton of a militant. “Happy Hunting.”

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.