Shocked Palestinians return to Gaza city to find their homes ransacked and vandalised
Gazans have voiced their horror after returning to the north of the enclave to find their homes ransacked and covered in graffiti.
Residents blame Israeli troops for the damage, which includes offensive slogans and images painted on the walls of homes that were left empty when their inhabitants were forced to flee the area to escape from the fighting.
Raghed Ghabn, a resident of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, told The National he was relieved to find that his building was still standing, but after looking inside, he returned to the Jabalia refugee camp.
Photographs of his son, who was killed in the conflict, had been desecrated, he said, and “insulting phrases” had been painted on the walls.
Mr Ghabn did not understand what was written, and asked others to translate the graffiti. “When I heard the translation, I cried, because it was humiliating to my son,” he said. Tal Al Zatar resident Samer Akkil also went home to find slogans daubed on the walls.
“We tried to translate some of them with the help of a neighbour who speaks Hebrew to understand their meaning, and found phrases like ‘Death to Hamas’ and ‘Hamas is terrorism’,” he said. “Some soldiers wrote obscene words on the walls, insulting the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza. There were also threatening and intimidating words directed towards Palestinians.”
Momen Hijazi, also from Tal Al Zatar, was disturbed by the vandalism in the area. “It was a tough feeling, truly, when we found the walls of our neighbourhood had been turned into drawing paper,” he said.
“They left phrases in Arabic like ‘Hamas kills people’, ‘We will take revenge against you’, among others.”
Al Saftawi, north of Gaza city, was occupied by Israeli troops after heavy fighting. Residents said graffiti had been left all over the neighbourhood.
“In our area, we found soldiers had written many phrases and drawn maps and operation plans on the walls of houses and streets,” resident Yahia Madi told The National.
He said residents were working to scrub the walls clean after finding them covered with six-pointed stars and slogans in both Hebrew and Arabic.
“Much of what was written, we couldn’t translate, and some was in Arabic, but overall, the talk was derogatory towards Arabs and Muslims.”