A Shadow of Fear Hangs Over Gazans Amid Israeli Defense Minister’s Threats

Por Dalia Abu Ramadan — Truthout

Israel Katz says Israel will forcibly displace 1 million Gazans if “even one Israeli soldier” is abducted.

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We are about to close out three years and enter another since Israel invaded Gaza, but we are not leaving the war behind to begin a new life. We are entering yet another year without knowing when this war will end — or whether it will end at all.

The fear remains. The destruction remains. The threats remain. It feels as though each passing year does not bring us closer to an end, but closer to the possibility of another war.

Despite everything we are living through in Gaza, we understand what it means to live one day at a time — to hold on to every simple moment we can still have. Imagine planning for another morning, perhaps for the simplest of things: going out with the friends you still have, or taking your family to the sea in the morning, amid all this destruction, simply to experience a moment that feels like life.

Then, as you are planning that ordinary morning, you hear a statement from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said on September 22: “If even one Israeli soldier or civilian is abducted, the city of Gaza — with its homes and terrorist towers — will be evacuated southward of its one million residents.”

Words like these are enough not only to disrupt your day, but to shake your entire future. The first question we asked ourselves was: Where would we go? Is there anywhere left for us to go?

“Everyone is talking about how the possibility of an Israeli soldier being captured has become impossible, that it will not happen, and that it could be an excuse to provoke people in Gaza and pave the way for the war to return,” Haneen Salem, a photographer in Gaza City, told me. “I am certain something will happen. No one knows what, but there is a shadow of fear hanging over Gaza’s civilians.”

Even my father said, “Expect it to happen at any moment,” warning that we could be forcibly displaced yet again, especially because we are living through another difficult period in Gaza. The intensity of Israeli bombardment had increased in the weeks leading up to Katz’s statement, and warplanes had not stopped flying overhead at night.

Words like these are enough not only to disrupt your day, but to shake your entire future. The first question we asked ourselves was: Where would we go? Is there anywhere left for us to go?

We are being asked to imagine another war while we are still living inside the aftermath of the one that was supposed to have ended.

The so-called ceasefire took effect at noon local time on October 10, 2025. A year has passed since that announcement, but the war has not ended. It is true that the intensity of the escalation and displacement has eased compared to the height of Israel’s war, but the bombardment and destruction have continued. So, what does it mean to hear threats of the war returning with the same ferocity when we have not even begun to recover from what has already happened?

When the “ceasefire” was announced, I believed the war would end as the wars of 2021, 2014, and previous years had ended — with a clear conclusion, a moment when we would know that the war was truly over. I expected that, immediately after the announcement, we would begin clearing the rubble, rebuilding what had been destroyed and slowly putting our lives back together.

But that did not happen.

Instead, it felt as though the war continued in another form, behind the scenes — a reality visible only to the people of Gaza who have been living through its consequences every day. Today, we still have not recovered. Even the most basic medical necessities remain unavailable, the siege is tightening, and the consequences of the war continue to surround every part of our lives.

The collapse of the Al-Sadah building in Tal al-Hawa is one example of what this unfinished recovery looks like. The building had been home to approximately 80 displaced Palestinians. In the early hours of September 16, it collapsed, with parts of the structure also falling onto nearby buildings and tents that were sheltering other displaced families. Rescue teams initially estimated that around 100 people, including at least 50 children, were trapped beneath the rubble. After rescue operations ended, Civil Defense teams confirmed that 21 people had been killed, including 12 children and five women, while 45 injured people were taken to hospitals.

With rubble left uncleared and too little being done to address the dangers left behind by the destruction, many partially damaged buildings across Gaza have been left standing in a fragile state, at risk of collapsing at any moment.

The Al-Sadah building had sustained structural damage from Israeli bombardment during the war and was struck several times in 2024 and again in March 2025. Civil defense teams had warned residents not to return to the building. Yet some had no other choice but to live there. With tents and homes unavailable, displaced Palestinians have been forced to shelter in cracked and damaged buildings, despite the risk that they could collapse around them.

But the danger does not end when people are pulled from the rubble. Those who survive still face a health system struggling to meet even the most basic needs. As World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on September 24, “Essential medicines, diagnostics, equipment and fuel remain in critically short supply.”

These shortages are not limited to life-saving medicines and hospital equipment; they reach into the most ordinary forms of care, turning even a visit to the dentist into a struggle.

It may be one of the most basic forms of health care, but anyone who has experienced severe tooth pain knows how unbearable it can be — especially as poor nutrition and the effects of prolonged hunger have taken a toll on people’s dental health.

Fear has become part of the way we respond to every sound. We can even find ourselves startled by the sound of a chair moving.

“Getting dental supplies and materials into Gaza has become extremely difficult,” dentist Dr. Ghalib Zimmo told me. “And when they do enter, they are prohibitively expensive. The cost of dental materials has risen to 10 times what it was before the war.”

The consequences are painful. “Many patients come to us needing root canal treatment, which can involve unbearable pain,” Dr. Ghalib said. “But because of the cost, they choose to have the tooth extracted instead of treating it.”

“Before the war, a root canal cost around $40,” he explained. “Now, it can cost as much as $250.”

Imagine how deeply exhausted we have become. We search for medicine, and it is not there. We search for wheelchairs for those who have lost limbs in the war, and they are not there. We search for the simplest things that make life possible, and they are not there.

Fear has become part of the way we respond to every sound. Sometimes, when we hear a sudden noise, we immediately think it is the sound of a missile just before it strikes. We can even find ourselves startled by the sound of a chair moving.

We are living with a trauma that no one can truly feel the way we do. Three years of relentless bombardment have left their mark on us. We search for life itself, and we cannot find it.

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Dalia Abu Ramadan is a Palestinian storyteller and aspiring graduate of the Islamic University of Gaza, sharing powerful narratives that reflect the strength, resilience, and challenges of life in Gaza.

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Fonte: Truthout