Another Family Devastated by Vicious Israeli Bombing

לאישה הזו קוראים האלא ערפאת, היא בת 35. מאז 2 בלילה היא ועוד 14 מבני משפחתה, רובם ילדים נמצאים מתחת להריסות ביתם שהופצץ ברחוב זארקה בשכונת תופאח בעזה. דיברתי עם גיסה, אנאס ערפאת ולדבריו כל מי שמנסה להתקרב כדי לסייע מותקף על ידי רחפנים. אם יש למישהו רעיון איך לעזור זה הזמן. pic.twitter.com/59vId4Ky20

— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) July 15, 2025

Reposted from Promoting Enduring Peace, where it appeared on July 21st

The bombs fell in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City around 2 a.m. on July 14 local time. There was no “battle” or raid, just Israeli annihilation from the air. We have worked with a man named Anas Arafat for several years trying to help Palestinians in Gaza City provide more food for themselves.  Anas’s mother and father were living in a 5-story building that had been partially destroyed. The bottom two floors were livable so they and two sons and daughters-in-law and 7 grandchildren were living there. Then the bombs fell. Everyone in the house was buried under the rubble, thirteen in all.  People tried to help but without construction equipment to lift the heavy beams and debris they could do nothing. One person shot a few seconds of video of Anas’ sister-in-law who could be seen in a gap of the wreckage. She says, “My father, my kids”. She looks at the camera. She looks at us. Then IDF drones appeared, and local neighbors ran. Drones kept on scaring people away.

An article in the Israeli paper Haaretz said that members of the family told their reporter that the IDF kept rescuers away for eight hours. The last two sentences of the article were, “Haaretz reached out to the IDF to receive an urgent response, while at least some of the Arafat family was still alive. The army has yet to respond.” Read that again, “while at least some of the Arafat family was still alive.” But the IDF did not respond to Haaretz until much later. In another article, Gideon Levy says that the IDF spokesman didn’t get back to Haaretz for 12 hours. The IDF absolutely knew the need for immediate rescue but were content to let the family die.

Rescuers from the Palestine Civil Defense eventually arrived but concluded that all 13 were dead. Anas Arafat said 15 other people in the area were also killed by the bombs.

Apparently, the explosion sent one of the granddaughters right out of the building. She had surgery and is alive. She will be told her family is gone 

Added to the horror is the fact that the bodies can’t be retrieved. That is the Israeli military makes it impossible to do so. For one their jets are still dropping bombs. But more important one needs heavy construction equipment to pick up the steel and concrete of the destroyed buildings. It’s unclear whether the problem is lack of machinery or lack of fuel but either way it’s not available. So Anas’ mother, father, brothers, sister-in-law, and seven nieces and nephews will lie in the ruins indefinitely or until the Israelis bulldoze the area. Anas’ wife and children were not in the house that was bombed on the 14th.

Let me tell you about Anas Arafat. He trained to be a lawyer and graduated with a degree, but opportunities to practice law in Gaza are very, very slim.  He’s been working on a mutual aid team called “Plant the Land”. It was an attempt to give Gaza more independence from food imports by growing food locally. It was vegan and had been co-founded by Jewish-American Laura Schleifer. It had considerable support from donors around the world. The team built a water well, provided medicine and sometimes blankets. He also set up an education center. Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP) started helping out three or four years ago. After some time we learned he had a serious medical problem. Anas is a young man but he developed diabetes, type 1. Insulin in Gaza City was expensive and since all of Gaza has been under various levels of Israeli siege, hard to get. He developed vision problems. Gaza doctors couldn’t help him, but he heard that an Egyptian doctor had a treatment involving eye injections and medicine that could lead to marked vision improvement. So fund raising from many sources including PEP got him the funds to get to Egypt. The treatment worked!

Then came the attack from Gaza on October 7 and the forever war from Israel on Gaza. Anas’ home was in the very north of Gaza City. He and his wife and children left right away, going from place to place in Gaza City . He learned in days that he had been correct in fleeing. His house was bombed. The education center he had set up that was serving as a shelter was bombed and six children were killed. Anas said that in that infamous October eleven of his extended family were killed including a sister-in-law. 

His wife was pregnant with their third child. She was due in mid-December. There was no doctor or midwife available. So Anas delivered his son by himself only getting instructions from a doctor by phone. Luckily there were no complications.

After that October Anas had no more insulin. By 2025 vision in one eye was gone. But all that time he worked. He used donations to buy food, clothing, toys and water and gave them away in neighborhoods of Gaza. On occasion they had celebrations. All this bothered the IDF and he was warned twice, but he persisted.

Now he is in deep psychic shock. And his family is hungry. 25 pounds of Pillsbury flour costs around $25 in the U.S.  Recently in Gaza City the asking price for that amount of flour was $235.  Anas has said now the price has further skyrocketed.  Laura Schleifer says Anas told him he hasn’t had food in four days.

In a third article in Haaretz  Nir Hasson on July 21 wrote, “To this day, the IDF hasn’t said why it bombed the Arafat home, or why it barred rescue workers from coming.”