Gaza- Every morning, Mrs. Ikram Al -Kafarneh, 62, wakes up a weight that crouches on her chest. It is not related to a health problem, but rather a buried sadness that returns it whenever it remembers its city Hanoun In which she was born, and lived in the entire stages of her life.
This city is located north Gaza StripAnd, which was ever known for her orchards and streets, turned – according to the testimonies of her family – into a flat land, destroyed from and over the ground. “They say nothing remains in it, the Israeli occupation is destroying everything that remains,” said Ms. Ikram, who today in a semester of Al -Azhar University, in western Gaza.
And her family returned to Beit Hanoun yet The ceasefire agreement Last January, but there were only weeks before they were asked to evacuate again, and their house was partially destroyed, so they fixed what they could and inhabited, but today they are homeless again, in a temporary place that is not suitable for human life.
Dream of return
“I was born there and all my memories there … my mother, my marriage, my children, and my grandchildren. Every morning I wake up on this sadness and I wonder: If the war ends, where will we come back? Where will we live? Even our house that we have drew is still present.” Despite all this, it confirms that the Hanoun is a land that must be returned to even if it is just a dust pile, saying, “We will return and build it again, as we have always done.”
And last Friday, the Israeli Defense Minister was published Israel KatzAerial image of Beit Hanoun, at the time that this city was “touched on the ground” in a shocking scene showing vast areas of the rubble and the remains of fully destructive buildings.
The image appears to be a silent scene … but it is in fact the cry of an entire age that was settled on the ground.
Under this rubble, not only stones, but the hearts of hearts that lived here, and the laughs of children were filled with the place, and the memory of a city that suffocated under the barrage of a biological Zionist fire.
Beit Hanoun .. was not demolished, but was executed.
I was executed … pic.twitter.com/1ou8TS8gfp
– Ahmad and Hamdan (@ahm3d_hamdan) July 11, 2025
The Israeli Channel 14 reported, last Sunday, that the mission of the occupation army at the present time is “destroying as soon as possible” for the city (northern Gaza Strip) before the completion of the prisoner exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitationAnd the ceasefire.
She stated that there is a specific target for the Israeli ground forces at the present moment, which is “destroying over the land of Beit Hanoun and under it, and killing all of the Hamas elements inside the tunnels.”
Beit Hanoun was the first area entered by the occupation army at the beginning of the land incursion on Gaza on October 28, 2023.
Daily obsession
From the same large family, the young Moataz Al -Kafarneh lives a daily concern, as he only has an apartment in the family home, and he does not know if it is still in place. He watches video clips from the occupation army showing huge bombings and unprecedented destruction.
“Beit Hanoun is no longer on the map,” said Moataz, to Al -Jazeera Net. “The great region whose residents are distinguished by interconnected social relations, in which the warmth of people nor their love for each other changed,” Moataz said to Al -Jazeera Net. Nevertheless, the young man rejects the idea of stability anywhere, adding with sorrow, “We are like fish, we cannot live outside the Hanoun Beit.”
It is estimated that more than 80,000 people are the residents of the city, who are displaced, distributed between tents and random centers, just like it.
In a dilapidated building to fall, west of Gaza, the two brothers Fayez and Fadl Al -Bassiouni erected after their displacement, while their brother Rafik lives in a shelter. The abandoned building in which Fayez was emerging was an administrative building of a sports club, and because of the Israeli bombing the walls, part of the ceiling collapsed, some stones were hanging, and it was about to fall over the heads of his children and grandchildren.
“We used to have a 4 -storey house, with an area of 450 meters. It was completely destroyed, we were tired of a stone stone. Today we have nothing.” He added, “Beit Hanoun was completely wiped, above and under the ground. This is how they said in the Israeli media, we follow this news with sorrow and lump.”
He notes that the people of the city are now living either in tents on the beach or in the university area (west of Gaza City), all of whom have the same feeling, shock, sadness and determination to return.
City of Excellence
In turn, his brother regains his childhood and the stages of his studies, and refers to the streets of the old city, and some of its famous neighborhoods such as the railway, olives, Abu Ghazaleh, Al -Kafarneh, and Al -Ezbah. She recalls her main families, such as Al Kafarneh, Al Masry, Al -Zahnin, Al -Dasina, Hamad, Abu Harbid, and others.
“Beit Hanoun is not just a region, it is our memory, our homes, our schools, the citrus trees that were decorating their roads … its people are among the best people, loyal, generous and brave, very conservative, their exceptional social interconnection.” However, Fadl adheres to hope, “even if we go back to a tent, we will return and build it again, God willing.”
As for the third brother Rafik, his two brothers, the two martyrs, Ahmed and Muhammad, who were killed with previous invasions, in 2001 and 2006, to indicate that Beit Hanoun was always in the range of fire, and despite that, her family never left her except this time for fear of the lives of their children.
Rafik lives away from his two brothers in a shelter, but he shares the same fear for their city, and please return to it one day.
He notes that the occupation, and in every aggression against the Gaza Strip, is sweeping the city, deserting its residents, destroying its homes, and sweeping its orchards.
He explains that Beit Hanoun was historically famous for the citrus fields that were completely destroyed by the occupation during the past years. He added, praising his hometown, “House Hanoun has the highest education rate, the lowest illiteracy in the sector and perhaps in PalestineWomen learn, and men have completed their education despite everything. “
Despite the scenes of the devastation that appear in the videos, Rafik Al -Bassiouni, and all the people of Beit Hanoun – whom Al -Jazeera Net spoke to – still believe in returning and repeating, “We will not sell our land, and we will not leave it, we will return and build it again, even on the rubble.”