Over the weekend, there was powerful footage of people fleeing from Hamad City in Khan Younis amid the smoke rising from Israeli air strikes. Several entire apartment blocks were reduced to blackened ruins.
![Hamad City: The Qatar-funded Gaza housing targeted by airstrikes](https://footwearjourney.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-11.png)
The particular significance of this will not have been lost on Qatar – which had just proven unable to mediate an extension to the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas.
The smart housing project with its impressive mosque and gardens was funded by Qatar and named for the former Qatari emir who laid the foundation stone when he visited 11 years ago. He was the first head of state to visit the Palestinian territory after it was taken over by Hamas.
The first flats in the complex had been given to Palestinians whose houses had been destroyed in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. Now many have lost their homes again.
Islam al-Farah, a municipal official, told the BBC that the number of people living in Hamad City had doubled from 15,000 to more than 30,000 in recent weeks as those displaced from northern Gaza sought shelter.
“Most of the residents are now living in the streets, in tents or parking areas,” he said.
“Recently, we were officially informed through notices to evacuate Hamad City completely, as it will be targeted,” he added.