RAFIF ESLEEM

Gaza – As part of its expanded ground offensive in Gaza City, Israeli forces are targeting residential towers that house densely packed families alongside nearby camps. The strikes are forcing mass evacuations and deepening fears among women and children, who see the attacks as another attempt to drive civilians south under bombardment.

Mahira al-Zanati, displaced in Mushtaha Tower, recalls the moment her life changed while preparing lunch for her children. “Suddenly, my husband shouted, ‘Quick, we must leave—the Israeli forces have ordered the building evacuated before it’s bombed.’”

She remembers the chaos vividly: “What can a woman possibly gather in just ten minutes? Dozens of families rushed down the stairwell in panic. I even left behind the emergency bags I had prepared, and in the stampede, I forgot my youngest daughter. I had to fight my way back up through the crowd and found her crying in a corner of our home we had just abandoned.”

The evacuation of the 18-story tower, home to 70 families, turned a quiet afternoon into scenes of terror. To avoid the crush on the stairs, some families threw mattresses and clothes from upper floors onto the street below.

‘I felt I achieved something just saving my children’

“People sought refuge in Mushtaha Tower believing it would be safe, but nowhere in Gaza is safe—north to south,” al-Zanati said. “I felt an immense sense of achievement that I managed to get my children out before the building was leveled by several missiles.”

The tower’s location in western Gaza had made it a temporary shelter for displaced families who pitched tents around it, alongside thousands more in al-Katiba camp nearby. “But what can a piece of fabric do against the shrapnel that scattered for meters across the area?” she asked.

One apartment, several families

Al-Zanati explained that fear now haunts every woman living in Gaza’s residential towers. “Each of us imagines the moment of fleeing or dying inside. I am now displaced in al-Katiba camp, where women tell me most of the tents are already destroyed or torn apart. With winter coming, they won’t withstand rain and wind, and families will be left exposed.”

Once designed to hold one family per apartment, the towers now house two or more amid mass displacement. “Every strike on a tower wipes away what little hope Palestinians have left of secure shelter,” she said.

In recent days, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed Mushtaha, al-Susi, and al-Ruya towers in western Gaza between the Tel al-Hawa and industrial districts. Other towers in al-Sahaba neighborhood, including al-Quds Tower, remain under threat. The bombardments come as U.S.-brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue, with residents anxiously awaiting whether Israeli forces will push further into Gaza City or whether the war will finally end.