The building watchman spoke on his mobile intently, pacing up and down a quiet street in Gaza. In video footage caught by an onlooker, Jamal Nasman showed no panic. Yet what he was hearing was deadly serious.
First, small missiles struck the block in Gaza City’s Rimal district, then boom, the building crumpled, footage showed.
Yet the mobile exchange that preceded the strike on the Rimal block has become a more common feature of conflict since the 2014 escalation in Gaza: Israel’s army makes a call, tells residents to evacuate, tap-tap-tap go the small missiles as a final warning - and then a big one brings the building down.
Footage by residents using smartphones, or recorded by Israel’s military or the media, including Reuters, have shown some blasts that are contained to a single apartment or bring down a tower block while buildings next door stay standing.
In other cases, television footage has showed residential blocks and ordinary homes in Gaza shattered or destroyed by blasts, whether from direct hits or collateral damage, along with the dead and wounded being carried away.
Giora Eiland, a former Israeli army general and national security adviser, described Gaza high-rises targeted as crucial assets of Hamas, saying hitting them was “certainly legal and even compulsory for a country that wants to conclude a war”.
Israeli commentator on Arab affairs, Shimrit Meir, said some of the apartment blocks where Hamas had operations were also homes for a wealthier Palestinian elite.
The original article contains 858 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
First, small missiles struck the block in Gaza City’s Rimal district, then boom, the building crumpled, footage showed.
Yet the mobile exchange that preceded the strike on the Rimal block has become a more common feature of conflict since the 2014 escalation in Gaza: Israel’s army makes a call, tells residents to evacuate, tap-tap-tap go the small missiles as a final warning - and then a big one brings the building down.
Footage by residents using smartphones, or recorded by Israel’s military or the media, including Reuters, have shown some blasts that are contained to a single apartment or bring down a tower block while buildings next door stay standing.
In other cases, television footage has showed residential blocks and ordinary homes in Gaza shattered or destroyed by blasts, whether from direct hits or collateral damage, along with the dead and wounded being carried away.
Giora Eiland, a former Israeli army general and national security adviser, described Gaza high-rises targeted as crucial assets of Hamas, saying hitting them was “certainly legal and even compulsory for a country that wants to conclude a war”.
Israeli commentator on Arab affairs, Shimrit Meir, said some of the apartment blocks where Hamas had operations were also homes for a wealthier Palestinian elite.
The original article contains 858 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!