Gaza’s skyline is being erased — and with it a fragile chance for peace
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has entered a new, harsher phase: airstrikes and ground operations that have begun to smash the high-rises that once housed families, businesses and entire neighbourhoods. The intensified demolition of towers in Gaza City — as many as 20 high-rise buildings hit this week — is part of an assault that health authorities say left dozens dead and has pushed the territory further toward a humanitarian abyss.
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At the same time, diplomatic tectonics are shifting. Ten countries, including Australia, Belgium, Britain and Canada, moved to recognise an independent Palestinian state ahead of the UN General Assembly, a symbolic but significant rebuke to Israel’s war strategy and a sign of global impatience. That diplomatic moment and the renewed ferocity of the war are not separate stories; they are deeply entangled.
What’s happening on the ground
For weeks, Israeli forces have been bombarding eastern suburbs of Gaza City, firing into densely populated areas such as Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa. Those positions are described by the military as staging grounds for advances toward central and western parts of the city — where the vast majority of Gaza’s remaining population is sheltering. The result has been predictable and grim: whole apartment blocks reduced to concrete skeletons and families forced to flee yet again.
Health authorities in Gaza report more than 65,000 people killed since the war began, a tally that has shocked observers and fed growing international calls for restraint and accountability. Israel says the numbers are inflated and insists its strategy aims to degrade Hamas’s capacity to attack and to recover Israeli hostages taken in October 2023. Hamas counters that it will not lay down arms until Palestinians secure statehood — a near-impossible demand in the current climate.
Hostages, images and the politics of pain
Hamas’ armed wing released tens of photographs this week of hostages still believed to be in Gaza, an emotive act designed to keep the fate of those captured in public view and to pressure the Israeli government. The Brigades published 46 images, each explicitly labelled with the name Ron Arad — an Israeli air force navigator who went missing over Lebanon in 1986 and whose fate has haunted Israel for decades. Alongside the photos they wrote: “Due to (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s obstinacy and (military chief Eyal) Zamir’s submission … a farewell photograph taken at the start of the operation in Gaza.”
The hostage question is both moral and strategic. Of the roughly 251 people seized in the October attack, around 47 are still believed to be in Gaza, the Israeli military says — 25 of whom it says are dead. For many Israelis the duty to “bring everyone home” is a sacred national commitment; for Palestinians, the hostages are a bargaining chip in a conflict about self-determination and occupation. The images are a reminder that warfare in the information age is as much about optics and narratives as it is about territory.
Diplomatic moves and the limits of symbolism
The decision by a group of countries to recognise Palestinian statehood now is emblematic of a wider international frustration. Recognition is largely symbolic without a clear mechanism to alter realities on the ground, yet it reshapes the diplomatic landscape. It signals to the UN General Assembly and to global publics that a growing number of democracies see the status quo as untenable.
Still, symbolism has limits. Military power, economic leverage, and the realities of occupation mean that declarations are only one lever among many. The recognition push raises questions: Will it alter negotiations or incentives? Can it provide Palestinians with meaningful protections under international law? Or will it harden positions and prolong suffering?
Urban warfare and the erosion of norms
What we are witnessing in Gaza is part of a broader, troubling pattern: modern conflicts concentrated in dense urban environments, where civilian infrastructure — apartment towers, hospitals, schools — becomes both the battlefield and the casualty. The leveled towers are not just a military outcome; they are a cultural and economic loss. They erase livelihoods, memories and the architecture of everyday life.
Globally, this raises uncomfortable questions about how international law protects civilians in city fights and how the world responds when those protections fray. The targeting of tall residential buildings, the repeated displacement of entire populations and the use of mass imagery to influence domestic politics are trends seen in other recent conflicts. They are symptoms of a larger crisis in how war is conducted and witnessed today.
Human consequences and harder choices
Humanitarian agencies warn of famine, of hospitals running out of supplies, and of a population repeatedly uprooted. Israel argues Hamas bears responsibility for Gaza’s hardships and could end the war through surrender and the release of hostages. Hamas answers that surrender is impossible without a credible pathway to statehood and dignity — conditions that many countries signalling recognition of Palestine now publicly embrace.
Where does this leave ordinary people on both sides? In Gaza, families wonder where to shelter next, how to find food or water, and whether any reconstruction will ever return them to a life they recognise. In Israel, the public anguishes over the missing and dead and demands decisive action against those it blames for the October attacks. Across continentals, citizens and leaders wrestle with the question of how to uphold the rules of war when politics and trauma make compromise nearly impossible.
Questions for readers
- Can symbolic acts of recognition translate into protections for civilians caught in war, or do they risk entrenching positions?
- How should the international community enforce norms against indiscriminate urban bombardment when major powers disagree?
- Is there a realistic political exit from a conflict where each side’s demands — statehood versus disarmament and hostage release — are framed as existential?
The destruction in Gaza and the diplomatic ripples around it demand more than condemnation and headlines; they call for sustained engagement, humanitarian prioritisation and a willingness to imagine political pathways that can prevent further erasure of human life and history. Until that broader work begins in earnest, every toppled tower will be a warning: modern war can, in a matter of days, erase whole cities and the fragile hopes they once housed.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
