Two years after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack triggered war with Israel, Gaza City, once the cultural and financial heart of the enclave, lies in ruins.
The city that once brimmed with markets, schools, and seaside cafés is now gripped by lawlessness, hunger, and fear, as Israel signals plans for a new offensive.
Once chosen by Hamas as its de facto capital, Gaza City has borne the brunt of Israel’s campaign to dismantle the group.
Towers have been reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes, sewage floods the streets, and residents burn scraps of wood and plastic for fuel. Hospitals and pharmacies are no longer functional, while food and hygiene supplies are scarce.
“People may be thirty years old, but the exhaustion of war makes them look seventy,” one resident, Majdi Abu Hamdi, told CNN. He described wild dogs feeding on bodies in the streets, saying their howls now terrify neighborhoods.
With Hamas’ political offices destroyed and its police absent, civilians say the city has descended into chaos. Criminal gangs loot markets, armed thugs roam after dark, and families carry weapons for protection.
Hamas militants, once visible across the city, now operate largely underground, surfacing only sporadically.
Bashar Taleb, a journalist in Gaza City, openly questioned the usefulness of Hamas’ arsenal.
“What is the use of the weaponry if it has not protected a single civilian, and has not prevented the hunger and the continuous death that has lasted for nearly seven hundred days?” he wrote.
Israeli officials told CNN that the military is preparing to retake Gaza City, calling it one of Hamas’ last major strongholds.
The plan could involve up to 60,000 additional reserve troops. Palestinians will reportedly be given two months to evacuate before the assault, with a symbolic deadline of October 7 — the second anniversary of the war.
But aid agencies warn of catastrophic consequences for civilians, citing the already dire humanitarian situation and a soaring death toll from previous operations.
“Hamas knows we’re coming,” one Israeli military official said, pointing to the vast underground tunnel system known as the “metro.” Clearing Gaza City, analysts warn, could take months of grinding urban warfare.
Source: CNN
