of 17,800 homes that were rendered uninhabitable.145 In the height of the 2014 war, nearly 500,000 (28 percent of the total population) were internally displaced inside the Gaza Strip.146 As of June 2016, at least 75,000 Palestinians were still displaced as a result of the war.147 The systematic and widespread attacks against the general population in all three wars on the Gaza Strip by Israel resulted in large numbers of Palestinians killed, injured, severe material and infrastructural damages, mass displacement and forcible transfer. “I have had multiple experiences of forced displacement. I remember our displacement during the war on Gaza in 2012. I was displaced with my family from our home after the Israeli military tanks were as close as 150 meters to the house. Afraid for the lives of my family and my own, because of the bombings, we left the house. During the war on Gaza in 2014, when the Israeli ground incursion started, the Israeli military sent voice messages on mobile and landline phones, and distributed leaflets in the area, requesting the area to be cleared of residents immediately. The shelling started, and my house was the first one to get bombed in Beit Hanoun [northeast edge of the Gaza Strip] area. My son’s apartment was targeted too, and it was miracle that he, his wife and seven children survived. We left our home immediately, afraid of another targeting of the house. I stayed with my family for a day in our neighbors’ house and then we went back to our house because of the shortage of food and water in our neighbors’ house. We stayed in the basement of the building. Moving inside the house was difficult because my house is near the borders. When we ran out of food and water in the basement, my son went to the first floor to bring some from the house. He was hit by an explosion that caused partial destruction of the house. We stayed for another two days in the house, fasting [it was Ramadan] and breaking the fast with water. The Israeli military started using poisoned gas and sound explosions to force us out of the house. The neighborhood was empty, except for three families, mine and two more, whom I kept in contact with since the beginning of the war. When the shelling became more intense and the bullets were too close to us we decided to leave the house. The security situation was very dangerous. The decision to leave the house was very difficult. We contacted the Beit Hanoun Hospital, requesting an ambulance to remove us from the area, but the response was: “any ambulance that moves gets bombed”. Then we contacted the Red Cross, informing them of our situation and asking for help. We told them there were three families in the area, 51 people from the neighborhood, 31 people in my house, including 20 children and 7 women. 145 OCHA oPt, Gaza: Internally displaced persons, April 2016. Available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/ content/gaza-internally-displaced-persons-april-2016 146 Ibid. 147 OCHA oPt, Housing, land and property rights issues pose further challenges to Gaza reconstruction, The Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin, March-April 2016. Available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/ content/housing-land-and-property-rights-issues-pose-further-challenges-gaza-reconstruction 39