Four bulldozers, equipped with gigantic hammers, attack the foundations of the last house still standing on a large heap of ruins. Then, in a few seconds, the building collapses, like a mowing giant, to the applause of a small squad of Israeli soldiers passing through this district of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The scene, broadcast on Monday, April 28 on social networks, illustrates the gradual demolition of one of the most important cities in the Palestinian enclave, housing from 150,000 to 200,000 inhabitants before the war launched by the attack by Hamas, on October 7, 2023.
What remains? The army prohibits the international press with independent access to the Gaza Strip. According to the work of two researchers, Corey Scher, of the University of the City of New York, and Jamon Van Den Hoek, of the University of Oregon (United States), the entire governorate was destroyed at 51 %. As for the city itself, whole areas seem to have been sprayed.
The process was methodical. The Israeli army has taken hold of the Philadelphia corridor, this area which delimits the border between Gaza and Egypt, in May 2024, in order to prevent Hamas from using what was presented as a crossing point. But the tunnels found under the border were inactive for a long time. The operation above all enabled Israel to completely isolate the enclave. And to cause a first exodus of the inhabitants of Rafah to the north of the band.
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