Gulf News talks to Gazans Bombs leave trail of destruction

Rabie Ijnid pulls out a new mahogany wardrobe door from an indistinct pile of rubble. "What did I do to the Israelis for this?" he asks us.

The wardrobe belonged not to him, but his brother 21 year-old Eisa, who died in his bed during the airstrike that flattened his house.

Eisa's body, and hundreds of others, lay under the rubble for 13 days, while all of the town's inhabitants fled.

"No one could get to him, not even the ambulances," Rabie says. "What can I do? All I can do is thank God."

Walking through town you see nothing but flattened buildings, residents sitting on charred sofas, amongst rubble and dust.

Lying just a few kilometres from Israel proper, this area is known by residents as 'Peace (Salam) Area.' It is also close to the area where a UN school sheltering women and children was bombed, the first alleged war crime committed by Israel.

"This is like an earthquake," Rabie says as he frantically walks around the remains of his three-storey house, rooting up the foundations of the building for us to see.

It's clear he wants us to see the complete destruction of his house, which he tells us is just a few years old.

"The tanks came after the planes and destroyed all of this. Why? We have no more clothes."

He explained that the Israeli troops that passed through sprawled graffiti over what were once the walls of his house.

"They insulted our Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) here. We don't disrespect their prophets. Why did they do this?"

Nearby a fire is lit, a makeshift tent is erected. It is now someone's new home.

A small farm with fruits and vegetables has been completely destroyed under the wheels of the Israeli tanks.

Amid the distraught families returning to Jabaliya and surrounding villages are foreign journalists documenting the stories of what happened to residents.

The house of a police chief is now a pile of rubble along with five other houses nearby.

For Rabie, this is just another example of the unfortunate fate of the Palestinians.

"We'll never leave this land," he tells us defiantly. "Even if the Israelis destroy our homes, we'll rebuild them, again and again."