Gaza city: Israel's initial withdrawal from parts of Gaza City on Friday unveiled the extensive destruction across residential neighborhoods and infrastructure, with entire districts reduced to rubble.
According to Anadolu Agency, footage shared by activists and journalists on social media revealed unprecedented devastation in areas vacated by Israeli forces, who are repositioning along the Yellow Line within the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire agreement.
The videos depicted unsettling scenes of flattened homes, shattered facilities, and bulldozed streets. The vicinity of the Saeed Siyam Mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of northern Gaza City was one of the hardest-hit locations. Residential buildings in that area were either completely demolished or left structurally uninhabitable due to heavy artillery shelling. The eastern section of Sheikh Radwan faced similar destruction, with entire blocks decimated and main roads torn apart.
Before commencing its phased pullback, the Israeli army reportedly conducted intense demolition and bombing operations across several neighborhoods, including Sheikh Radwan. The nearby tunnel area to the east also suffered widespread destruction, having already been targeted in previous operations. Additional footage documented severe damage in the Al-Nasr district northwest of the city, where thousands of homes were either destroyed or left in ruins.
The Israeli army began its gradual troop withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on Friday, intending to complete it within 24 hours to the locations specified in US President Donald Trump's plan to end the conflict. Early Thursday morning, Trump announced that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas had reached an agreement on the first phase of his ceasefire and prisoner exchange plan. The agreement followed four days of indirect negotiations between the two parties in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with participation from delegations from Trkiye, Egypt, and Qatar, under US supervision.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have resulted in the deaths of nearly 67,200 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, rendering the area uninhabitable.