// Entry #33

Homes damaged during Israel's air and land assault on the Gaza Strip

The G. family, abbreviated per request, lived in a wide two-story building in the Zaytun district of Gaza City, one of the first areas to be invaded by land after Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip in late 2008, early 2009. Columns of tanks and bulldozers crawled through the neighborhood’s streets and walls, and low-flying helicopters monitored the destruction from above.

The family remained indoors, startled by the mobilization of a foreign military in front of their doorsteps but not necessarily afraid of the situation in its full magnitude. They had gotten used to the buzzing of drones and the explosions of missile barrages in and around their neighborhood. According to Deena, in her teens at the time, the family’s primary concern was to avoid windows and any exposed or open-air parts of the house. Helicopters and snipers were said to be targeting anything that moves. [Read more...]