'Earthquake-like': Israeli bombing rocks Gaza City as occupation threat looms

Although they have lived under consent Israeli bombardment for nearly two years, nothing could have prepared the residents of Gaza City for the ferocious attacks of recent weeks.

"This time, it’s different," many of them say. 

Since Israel announced its plans to occupy Gaza City, home to nearly one million civilians, the military has intensified its attacks, including air strikes, artillery shelling, and explosions caused by remotely controlled vehicles.

The attacks have concentrated on the northern, southern, and south-eastern outskirts of the city, levelling almost every standing building in their path.

Day and night, explosions have rocked the city, leaving residents terrorised.

“We feel that the type of missiles used this time are more powerful and fierce,” said Reham Abu al-Beidh, who lives in the Abu Iskandar neighbourhood in the north of the city. 

“The sound of the explosions is more terrifying, and their destructive power is greater.”

Nasser Matar, a 35-year-old father of three, shares a similar experience, saying the situation has become “much more dangerous” in recent days.

“The army is targeting buildings just 200 to 300 metres away from us. It’s become too dangerous to even step outside the front door, as quadcopters fire at any movement they detect,” he explained.

A resident of al-Saftawi neighbourhood, also in the north of the city, Matar and his wife were startled awake by what he described as a “frightening sound of movement".

“We thought it was the sound of asbestos sheets being moved from place to place by a crane or a tuk-tuk. We couldn’t sleep out of fear.”

At around 4:45am, the couple realised the sound had come from a remotely-controlled Israeli military robot.

'We are forced to stay and prefer dying in our homes over fleeing'

- Palestinian nurse, Reham Abu al-Beidh

The robots, which carry explosives, have been widely used by Israeli forces during the ongoing invasion of Gaza, often targeting civilian homes.

Their use in Gaza City has become almost a daily occurrence during the latest escalation.

Residents recognise them by the powerful and deafening explosions they cause.

“The explosions feel like an earthquake,” said Matar.

When one of the robots blew up a house roughly 300 metres from his own, Matar and his family felt the impact in their home, leaving them with minor injuries.

Bassem Mounir al-Hanawi, a resident of northern Gaza City, said the earthquake-like explosions often leave him with severe headaches for hours due to the intense noise.

“Two days ago, they detonated a robot about a kilometre away from us. A piece of shrapnel weighing 150kg landed right next to us,” he told Middle East Eye.

“If that piece of shrapnel had hit a tent or anyone nearby, it would have been enough to kill them and cause a massacre on its own,” he added.

The 31-year-old father of one said the latest incursion has left residents “living in terror”, as aerial and ground attacks intensify without warning, leaving a trail of dead and wounded Palestinians in the streets.

He has witnessed previous assaults on northern Gaza City, especially in the Jabalia refugee camp, which he described as like “horrors from the Day of Judgment".

But he says the current raids and missile strikes are more intense than anything residents have seen before.

‘No safe place in Gaza’

Hanawi says neither he nor his family “have the strength to move even twenty metres away” from their home, despite Israeli forces steadily advancing.

“We've been displaced more than seven times. Our lives have been ruined, and we've lost so much. We lost my father,” he said.

“We've become desperate and frustrated. Whatever happens, happens.”

According to the United Nations, at least 90 percent of Palestinians in the blockaded Strip have been displaced during the nearly two-year-long genocide, with many forced to flee multiple times.

As part of its new occupation plan, Israel is reportedly seeking to force nearly all of Gaza City’s one million civilians to flee south.

But with no genuine safe zones in Gaza and the memory of past humiliating displacement experiences still fresh, many are refusing to leave. Still, the alternative, remaining and facing the army with nothing, is leaving residents terrified.

Beidh says that as the attacks intensify, Palestinians are becoming “completely drained, financially, psychologically, and morally".

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The 29-year-old nurse has become one of the main breadwinners for her family of 15.

“During the war, due to high prices and famine, we were forced to sell my mother’s gold bracelets and some of my sisters’ jewellery. We even sold some of our household furniture just to buy food, especially flour,” she explained.

Beidh adds that Israeli expulsion orders were issued in their area this week via loudspeakers and leaflets, with soldiers shouting at residents to flee, using a sarcastic tone and obscene language.

Given the high cost of transport and the trauma of previous displacement, her family has decided to stay, despite the rising danger.

“We are forced to stay and prefer dying in our homes over fleeing,” she said.

“There are no places to flee to. The occupation lies in all its claims about safe zones. There is no safe place in Gaza.”

The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted so-called “safe zones” across the Gaza Strip since the start of the genocide.

Israeli forces have killed at least 63,000 Palestinians since October 2023 and wounded over 150,000. More than 80 percent of those killed are civilians, according to the Israeli military's own data. 

“Fear and tension are constant. We are afraid for ourselves, our loved ones, and what remains of our homes," Beidh said. 

"We are afraid for Gaza, for our future, and for lives that have been on hold for two years because of this ongoing genocide.”