Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib was at home in San Francisco when the panicked calls began. An Israeli airstrike on Thursday hit his family's home in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip's so-called safe zone where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge from war.
Soon his phone was flooded with news footage from the house where he was having family barbecues and playing with his grandmother's ducks. He watched as neighbors climbed over the smoking ruins, searching for survivors.
Instead, they found at least 31 bodies, including two women in their 70s, several people in their 60s and nine children between the ages of three months and nine years. More are still missing. He learned the names of the dead from texts and Facebook updates spread out over hours and days.
“It was disgusting and disgusting,” said Mr. Alkhatib, 33, a writer and vocal critic of Hamas who was granted asylum in the United States after the armed group seized power in Gaza in 2007. “My heart was pounding out of control with worry and fear. These are people I grew up with. It was a family home.”
The attack, which killed many members of Mr. Alkhatib's family, is one of several in recent weeks that hit areas where the Israeli military told people to stay to avoid airstrikes, the council said and questioned the safety of those who followed him.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. Since then, the Israeli military has carried out a massive airstrike and ground offensive that has displaced 1.9 million people, about 85 percent of Gaza's population, according to the United Nations. The campaign has killed about 20,000 people and wiped out entire branches of family trees, according to Gaza officials. It has also devastated the Strip's civilian infrastructure and economy and crippled hospitals.
Azmi Keshawi, a Rafah-based researcher with the International Crisis Group, an independent research organization, said he saw three airstrikes there last week: one on Sunday that killed 21 people, one on Monday that killed 11 people, and one on Tuesday that killed 15 people.
“The situation on the ground in Rafah is not so calm,” he said.
Nir Dinar, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said Israel “has taken significant steps to urge civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to move to the safer zone in the southern Gaza Strip and has taken actionable measures to reduce the harm to civilians and civilians.” “Decrease property during its operation.”
He declined to answer questions about the airstrikes in Rafah, but said: “Unfortunately, Hamas also embeds itself in safer areas and chooses to do so at the expense of the safety of Gazans.”
Before the war, Rafah province – which is about a third the size of Brooklyn – had a population of about 260,000. But in recent weeks hundreds of thousands of people have fled there from cities in the north and there are now signs that public order is collapsing.
Last week, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Palestine relief agency, told reporters that during a recent visit to Rafah, he observed people in the Gaza Strip stopping aid trucks, looting their food and devouring it on the spot.
“That’s how desperate and hungry they are,” he said. “Everywhere you go, people are hungry, desperate and scared.”
Mr. Keshawi, the researcher, said he fled his home in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, and now lives with his family in a tent on a sidewalk in Rafah. No one in Rafah, which sits on the border with Egypt, appeared to have been “willing to take in so many people,” he said.
“The living conditions in the shelters are really miserable,” he said. “They have many diseases. You have to wait in line for hours to go to the toilet. There is a lack of hygiene, there is a lack of UN services to clean up the garbage. Dirty water runs between the tents.”
When the airstrike hit Mr. Alkhatib's family home on December 14, there were dozens of people inside and even more in the backyard. He said this was a reflection of the terrible conditions in Rafah and the generosity of his uncle Dr. Abdullah Shehada (69) and his aunt Zainab (73). Both were killed in the strike.
“She opened the house to dozens of people,” Mr. Alkhatib said. “If a building is left, people crowd into it, and that is a common feature of what is currently happening in southern Gaza.”
His aunt was a retired teacher at a UN school and his uncle was a well-known doctor, he said. The dead also included two more of his aunts, Fatma Nassman, 76, and Hind Nassman, and another uncle, Hassan Nassman, both in their 60s. Several children were among the dead, including his three-month-old cousin Ellen and his four-month-old cousin Iyla.
Mr Alkhatib said he knew of no justification for the attack: the house was not used by Hamas.
“I tell you from the bottom of my heart that nothing happened there,” Mr. Alkhatib said. “Even if some Hamas guy walks by the place, don’t destroy an entire house and kill everyone in it.”