The second invasion of al-Shuja’iyya is a war of attrition – Mondoweiss

It was midday on June 26 when residents of the al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City – one of the largest neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, home to over 300,000 people – were surprised when Israeli tanks rolled into their neighborhood.

Residents described chaotic scenes as tanks fired indiscriminately and unleashed a barrage of shells that devastated the area. Many hastily packed their essential belongings into bags they had prepared in anticipation of another wave of displacement. Within hours, videos and photos circulated showing thousands fleeing in panic, fear and tears.

Arwa Awais, 22, who gave birth to her baby in her house on al-Mantar Street, said her husband immediately jumped into action when he saw the tanks coming about 300 meters from their house. They grabbed what they could and headed to Sabha Hospital.

“I wasn’t aware of what I was doing,” she said Mondoweiss“I packed my little daughter’s things in a bag, carried her and we went out into the street without wearing appropriate clothes or shoes.”

Having been displaced several times in recent months and knowing from previous massacres in the north what horrors Israeli ground forces were capable of, Arwa knew that staying was not an option. She joined her sister Lina from al-Nazaz Street and together they sought refuge with a third sister on the western outskirts of al-Shuja’iyya.

When the three sisters met, they decided to evacuate al-Shuja’iyya completely. The third sister who was hosting them also looked for another place to go with her family until the incursion subsided. They considered areas west of Gaza City, otherwise they risked going south and not being able to return.

That night, most families in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood left their homes and slept on the streets, carrying all their belongings on their backs.

Arwa moved west through al-Shujaiya and witnessed the shelling of neighboring houses. Miraculously, she and her family survived, even though the buildings and streets around them were hit.

“All the time I was looking at the face of my two-month-old daughter,” she said. “Despite the scenes of death and the piles of body parts left by the drones targeting the fleeing residents, I was thinking about only one thing: that I was carrying my daughter and taking her from one area to another for the third time in her short life. I thought, it can’t be fair that a child has to witness all these scenes and hear all these sounds.”

“We are not running from death,” Arwa explained. “We have died several times during this war and have been waiting for it to end. Our hearts are charred by what we have lived through. But if we have the freedom to choose, we do not want to die under the rubble. We do not want stray dogs to eat my daughter’s body, because that is what will happen when the Israeli army enters Gaza. Bodies are left on the streets and under the rubble until dogs eat them.”

Arwa said when people ask her how old her daughter is, her answer is different every time. “I tell them that my daughter Malak survived tens of thousands of shells and rockets and that is her age,” she said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said in its daily casualty report that the Israeli army had killed 47 people and injured 52 others in Gaza in the last 24 hours.

Following Israel’s withdrawal from al-Shuja’iyya two months ago, many families had returned to their destroyed homes and attempted to resettle amidst the ruins, but then they were confronted with this latest invasion without warning.

The Israeli military’s surprise attack targeted not only the area around Sabha Hospital, but also al-Shuja’iyya as a whole, including its various sprawling sectors such as al-Turkman, al-Tuffah, al-Sha’af and al-Nazaz.

The Israeli army gave no warning to civilians before starting its operation, but used the element of surprise to storm the area with a large ground force. According to statements by Mondoweiss All residents of the neighborhood were surprised by the sudden invasion. Several hours after the attack began, the Israeli army dropped leaflets and called residents to ask them to leave the Shuja’iyya neighborhood and head south. According to residents, the Israeli army surrounded the area and advanced very quickly.

Eyewitnesses reported that the small Sabha Maternity Hospital became a refuge for families whose relatives were mostly murdered because they had family members close to the Hamas movement. Those who survived sought refuge in the hospital after all their homes were destroyed and most of their relatives were killed.

This recurring pattern of incursions is aimed at suppressing resistance after al-Shuja’iyya was already severely decimated in previous operations. Despite the widespread destruction, residents persist in rebuilding and resisting, insisting on returning and living in the rubble of their homes.

A pattern has now emerged in how the Israeli army operates in areas it has previously “cleansed” of resistance and from which it has withdrawn. The army suddenly invades, kills indiscriminately, arrests masses of people, surrounds neighborhoods and inspects them house by house, engaging in skirmishes with resistance fighters who are trying to lure the invading troops into ambushes. When searches and raids are carried out on homes, people are immediately arrested or executed.

All this takes several days, sometimes weeks, and the extent of the atrocities committed by the Israeli army only becomes clear after its activities have ended.

After their withdrawal, the army continues to monitor the area for long periods of time and returns to test the resistance’s ability to regroup in the area and confront the army again. But each time, the resistance shows a resilience and versatility that continued even during the months of ground invasion.

That is exactly what the Israeli army did when it entered al-Shifa Hospital in March for the second time since the war began, besieging the hospital and its surroundings for two weeks and completely destroying it. Survivors described how Israeli soldiers rounded up patients and medical staff and executed them along with Gaza officials and displaced refugees in a large-scale massacre before burying them in mass graves.

The same pattern repeated itself when the army again entered Jabalia and the Jabalia refugee camp in mid-May, fighting resistance fighters in the alleys of the camp for three weeks before finally withdrawing.

The same thing is happening now in al-Shuja’iyya, and the results are likely to be the same. The Israeli army’s strategy is clear: it is trying to “mow the grass” wherever resistance resurfaces in Gaza, while the fighting subsides from its “intense phase,” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said four days ago.

But there is a more precise description of this dynamic: it is a war of attrition with the resistance movement.

During the first hours of the invasion of Shuja’iyya, resistance groups announced their defensive operations against the Israeli forces, including the destruction of tanks, troop transports and targeted attacks on groups of soldiers. The invasion lasted little more than 24 hours, but at the time of writing, reports of heavy Israeli casualties in Shuja’iyya were already emerging.