Returning to ruins in Gaza: ‘We have nothing left’

 

A Palestinian boy stands in front of a house destroyed by the Israeli offensive in Rafah on Tuesday.ASSOCIATED PRESS/LAPRESSE (APN)

Returning to ruins in Gaza: ‘We have nothing left’

The ceasefire has enabled thousands of people to return to their places of origin, but many are met with nothing more than a mountain of rubble where their homes once stood

LUIS DE VEGA

Jerusalem - JAN 22, 2025 - 08:16 

Mohamed al-Najjar, a 24-year-old law student, used the first day of the ceasefire on Sunday to return to his family home in Rafah, located in the southernmost part of Gaza. What he encountered, eight months after fleeing the arrival of Israeli troops, was a heap of rubble. “We have nothing left,” he said in text and video messages sent via phone. Around him, most of the neighborhood looked the same — reduced to ruins — on streets where not even the asphalt remains.

 

“This is my luxury apartment,” jokes Andrei, a 22-year-old member of the 35th Marine Brigade, as he shows EL PAÍS the hole that he uses to protect himself from shelling. Photo by Luis de Vega

RUSSIAN WAR IN UKRAINE

As Ukrainians liberated Staromaiorske, soldiers spent a month fighting alongside bodies of their enemies

EL PAÍS accompanied the 35th Ukrainian Marine Artillery Brigade, shortly before its soldiers retook the town on the southern front of the Donetsk province

LUIS DE VEGA
Donetsk southern front - JUL 29, 2023 - 11:00 COT

For a month, the body of a Russian soldier was lying less than a dozen feet away from a Ukrainian army position. During this time, the group of men from the 35th Ukrainian Marine Artillery Brigade kept on shooting. They were south of the Donetsk province, at the gates of the Zaporizhzhia region. Their persistence was ultimately rewarded with the liberation of the town of Staromaiorske, which happened this past Thursday. The victory took place two days after the special envoy from EL PAÍS accompanied the soldiers to the front. For several weeks, Kyiv hadn’t been able to regain control of enclaves in this area.

 

A Ukrainian tank on Wednesday near Chasiv Yar (Donetsk region).IRYNA RYBAKOVA (AP)

Ukraine consolidates counteroffensive with attacks in Zaporizhzhia

The southern region, 80% of which is controlled by Moscow, is the strategic point where Kyiv is trying to break the corridor which connects the Crimean peninsula with the Donbas for Russians

Luis de Vega

Kylv

June 8, 2023

In an operation that could run for weeks or even months, Ukraine is trying to make a dent in the territory gained by the Russian army following the major invasion launched in February of last year. Clashes between local troops and Russian invaders in the southeast of the country have intensified in recent hours, particularly in the region of Zaporizhzhia, according to anonymous Ukrainian and Western testimonies, in a sign that the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive is consolidating. The first signs of the long-awaited military operation were recorded on Monday.