This is what an Israeli airstrike on a building in Gaza looks like

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <br /> <div class=" pb-feature pb-chained pb-f-article-article-body" data-pb-async="false" data-pb-columns="" data-pb-content-editable="" data-pb-content-uri="/pb/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/31/this-is-what-an-israeli-airstrike-on-a-building-in-gaza-looks-like/%3fhpid=z1" data-pb-name="article-article-body" id="article-world_1401468655537_97" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 50px !important; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;"> <div class="article-body" id="article-body" style="margin-top: 20px;"> <div class="pb-sig-line hasnt-headshot has-0-headshots hasnt-bio is-not-column" style="padding-bottom: 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="pb-byline" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;">By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/sudarsan-raghavan/" style="text-decoration: none;">Sudarsan Raghavan</a></span> <span class="pb-timestamp" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;">July 31 </span> <span class="tweet-authors"><span class="pb-twitter-follow" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 5px; position: relative; top: 5px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-follow-button twitter-follow-button" data-twttr-rendered="true" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.1404859412.html#_=1406846796038&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&screen_name=africawriter&show_count=false&show_screen_name=true&size=m" style="height: 20px; width: 131px;" title="Twitter Follow Button"></iframe></span></span></span></div> <br /> <article><div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-1.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-1.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">A bomb is seen before it hits a house in a Gaza City neighborhood. (Photos by Max Becherer/Polaris Images for The Washington Post)</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GAZA CITY – It was around 2:30 p.m., and the word had spread on al-Jalla Street.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An Israeli airstrike was about to unfold. The target: a gray, concrete building of moderate height in the heart of Gaza City.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Children gathered on balconies. Young men congregated at an intersection. Others placed bricks and tires blocking off a section of the street that ran past the building. A man in a tank top and shorts served as a traffic policeman, directing vehicles to take a detour. Cars stopped. More people stepped out, their eyes glued to the ill-fated building.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And they all waited to watch a macabre ritual of destruction on the 24th day of the war.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A few minutes earlier, the Israeli military had telephoned the son of Bashir al-Ramlawi, 58, the owner of the building. How they got his number was a mystery. The voice on the other end of the line told the son that his family had to evacuate their home immediately. They were going to be attacked.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The son frantically called his father. The father frantically told the rest of the family, which by then consisted of 35 members because many had fled their homes in other parts of Gaza to seek refuge with Ramlawi, he later said. Now, they were on the run again.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Perhaps the neighbors saw the family fleeing within five minutes of the call. Perhaps the son called his friends. Perhaps the Israelis themselves phoned residents in the area. Whatever the cause, the word spread like a brushfire, and soon everyone along al-Jalla Street seemed to know of the coming airstrike.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_6__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_6" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_6" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div class="has-subscribe-promo borB1S borT1S marB26 padB10 padT10"> </div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-2.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-2.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-2.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Residents of central Gaza watch as an Israeli bomb drops on a house.</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And they waited.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suddenly, a loud boom, and then, a puff of smoke shaped like a mushroom. The building had been hit. But no one left. They knew this was just the beginning.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A few minutes later, another bomb screeched overhead and struck the building. The cloud of smoke spread, fogging the street. Then, a third one hit. The building was still standing.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, no one left. They knew the drill. The first three strikes, some onlookers said seemingly speaking with experience, were small ones from Israeli drones. They served, the people said, as a warning to anyone still too close to the building and as a way to soften up the building, like a boxer jabbing his opponent, seeking that knockout punch.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-4.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-4.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-4.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">An Israeli missile strikes a house in Gaza, minutes after Israeli forces called the owner and asked him to evacuate.</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It came at 2:50 p.m. The unmistakable sound of an F 16 fighter jet roaring through the sky. A finned missile loudly whooshed over the heads of the people on al-Jalla Street, obliterating the building. A huge ball of smoke, triple the size of the first three strikes, rose toward the sky.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was a pinpoint strike. No one was killed or injured, and the surrounding buildings were untouched.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-3.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-3.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-3.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Smoke rises from a house in a Gaza neighborhood after it is hit by a missile.</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And it was over. Within minutes, the street was open again. Cars drove by the crumpled building. Everything seemed to be normal, save for the face of Ramlawi.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I don’t know why they hit my house,” he said, nearly in tears, adding that he had no ties to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said many of his relatives who lived with him had recently fled fierce clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the eastern enclave of Shijaiyah. Now, he said, they were all homeless.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_2" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We don’t know where we will go,” said Ramlawi, as he watched people on the street take pictures of his decimated house with their cellphones.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-6.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-6.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-6.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Residents look at the damaged building after it was brought down by an airstrike.</span></span></div> </article><br /> <div class="post-body-sig-line" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 20px;"> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/sudarsan-raghavan/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img class="post-body-headshot-left" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2011/02/15/PH2011021501823.jpg&h=90&w=90" style="border: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); float: left; margin: 24px 24px 24px 0px; max-width: 90px;" /></span></a><br /> <div class="post-body-bio has-photo" style="margin: 24px 0px 24px 105px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sudarsan Raghavan has been The Post's bureau chief in Africa since 2010. He began his career as a foreign correspondent in Africa, and covered the Iraq war as Baghdad bureau chief.</span></div> <div class="clear" style="clear: both;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class=" pb-feature pb-chained pb-f-page-share-bar" data-pb-async="false" data-pb-columns="" data-pb-content-editable="" data-pb-content-uri="/pb/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/31/this-is-what-an-israeli-airstrike-on-a-building-in-gaza-looks-like/%3fhpid=z1" data-pb-name="page-share-bar" id="article-world_1399567687195_45" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 50px !important; padding-top: 0px !important; position: relative;"> <div class="social-tools-wrapper-bottom"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><br /> <ul class="social-tools-bottom inline" style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px;"></ul> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GAZA CITY – It was around 2:30 p.m., and the word had spread on al-Jalla Street.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An Israeli airstrike was about to unfold. The target: a gray, concrete building of moderate height in the heart of Gaza City.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Children gathered on balconies. Young men congregated at an intersection. Others placed bricks and tires blocking off a section of the street that ran past the building. A man in a tank top and shorts served as a traffic policeman, directing vehicles to take a detour. Cars stopped. More people stepped out, their eyes glued to the ill-fated building.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And they all waited to watch a macabre ritual of destruction on the 24th day of the war.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A few minutes earlier, the Israeli military had telephoned the son of Bashir al-Ramlawi, 58, the owner of the building. How they got his number was a mystery. The voice on the other end of the line told the son that his family had to evacuate their home immediately. They were going to be attacked.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The son frantically called his father. The father frantically told the rest of the family, which by then consisted of 35 members because many had fled their homes in other parts of Gaza to seek refuge with Ramlawi, he later said. Now, they were on the run again.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Perhaps the neighbors saw the family fleeing within five minutes of the call. Perhaps the son called his friends. Perhaps the Israelis themselves phoned residents in the area. Whatever the cause, the word spread like a brushfire, and soon everyone along al-Jalla Street seemed to know of the coming airstrike.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> </div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> <img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-2.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-2.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-2.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Residents of central Gaza watch as an Israeli bomb drops on a house.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And they waited.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suddenly, a loud boom, and then, a puff of smoke shaped like a mushroom. The building had been hit. But no one left. They knew this was just the beginning.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A few minutes later, another bomb screeched overhead and struck the building. The cloud of smoke spread, fogging the street. Then, a third one hit. The building was still standing.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, no one left. They knew the drill. The first three strikes, some onlookers said seemingly speaking with experience, were small ones from Israeli drones. They served, the people said, as a warning to anyone still too close to the building and as a way to soften up the building, like a boxer jabbing his opponent, seeking that knockout punch.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-4.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-4.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-4.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">An Israeli missile strikes a house in Gaza, minutes after Israeli forces called the owner and asked him to evacuate.</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It came at 2:50 p.m. The unmistakable sound of an F 16 fighter jet roaring through the sky. A finned missile loudly whooshed over the heads of the people on al-Jalla Street, obliterating the building. A huge ball of smoke, triple the size of the first three strikes, rose toward the sky.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was a pinpoint strike. No one was killed or injured, and the surrounding buildings were untouched.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-3.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-3.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-3.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Smoke rises from a house in a Gaza neighborhood after it is hit by a missile.</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And it was over. Within minutes, the street was open again. Cars drove by the crumpled building. Everything seemed to be normal, save for the face of Ramlawi.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I don’t know why they hit my house,” he said, nearly in tears, adding that he had no ties to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza.</span></div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><br /> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_2" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> </div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> He said many of his relatives who lived with him had recently fled fierce clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the eastern enclave of Shijaiyah. Now, he said, they were all homeless.</div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We don’t know where we will go,” said Ramlawi, as he watched people on the street take pictures of his decimated house with their cellphones.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; width: 599px;"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-6.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-6.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/aljalla-6.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /></span><br /><span class="pb-caption">Residents look at the damaged building after it was brought down by an airstrike.</span></span></div> </div>

This is what an Israeli airstrike on a building in Gaza looks like

By  Sudarsan Raghavan   July 31   A bomb is seen before it hits a house in a Gaza City neighborhood. (Photos by Max Becherer/Polari...

Read more »