While sleeping in her home in Gaza City, MF was jolted awake at dawn by an unusual sight: an Israeli armed quadcopter hovering in her room.
Panicked, the 26-year-old Palestinian shut her eyes and forced herself back to sleep.
The next morning, she got up and went to work, wondering whether what she had seen was just a bad dream – a product of the ongoing attacks that had already triggered a psychological breakdown.
But when she returned home, MF, who asked to be identified only by her initials, overheard her father saying he had seen a quadcopter leaving their home earlier that morning.
It was then she realised that what she had witnessed was, in fact, real.
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“I now sleep completely covered by the blanket from head to toe, even if I’m suffocating from the heat,” MF told Middle East Eye.
“If I wake in the middle of the night, I can’t even dare to open my eyes,” she added.
The incident is not an anomaly.
As Israel threatens the reoccupation of Gaza, residents of Gaza City report a noticeable rise in Israeli quadcopter harassment and attacks, a tactic many believe is aimed at forcing them to the south.
Over the past week, Israeli drones fired twice in separate incidents at two girls from MF’s family as they hung laundry.
In other instances, loud recordings of women ululating were blasted outside their windows.
On another occasion, their neighbour was killed on the balcony across from their building.
MF says she and her family now live under the constant threat of what she describes as a “real-life video game”, constantly trying to escape daily assaults by Israeli quadcopters.
‘They want us to leave’
Earlier this week, MF said her 16-year-old cousin was outside when she suddenly felt something hit her back.
“She lifted her T-shirt and saw that a quadcopter had fired in her direction, thankfully only scratching her,” she told MEE.
“When she realised it had been a potentially deadly shot, she broke down.”
‘I don’t know what they want, it’s truly bizarre and terrifying. But I do believe they want us to leave’
– MF, Gaza City resident
Later in the week, MF said an Israeli quadcopter fired at least three shots at her 18-year-old niece while she was hanging laundry on the rooftop.
“Thank God, she managed to take shelter behind a wall and wasn’t hit,” she added.
The next morning, a quadcopter hovered outside their window overnight, blasting sounds of women ululating for hours.
“I really don’t know what they want from us, this is truly bizarre and terrifying. But I do believe they want us to leave the area.”
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to relocate residents of Gaza City to the southern Gaza Strip ahead of a planned assault to occupy the already war-ravaged city.
The Israeli military on Thursday instructed hospitals and NGOs to begin preparing to move their operations to southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, residents have been receiving recorded phone calls ordering them to flee to the south.
‘Mama fell’
One of the most shocking incidents for MF was the killing of her 35-year-old neighbour, Amal al-Khudari, who was shot by a quadcopter drone while standing on the balcony opposite her home on 16 August.
Ibrahim Qandil Abushaban, Khudari’s husband, was outside on the street preparing falafel, the popular Middle Eastern dish he and his wife had begun selling to neighbours as a source of income during the war.
Khudari had been in their first-floor apartment, washing clothes and hanging them on the balcony. Her youngest son, four-year-old Ali Abushaban, was by her side.
Suddenly, and without warning, a quadcopter appeared and opened fire, striking Khudari, according to her husband.
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“At first, we didn’t know what had happened, but my little boy saw everything. He came running to me and said, ‘Mama fell,’” Abushaban told MEE.
He initially thought his wife had collapsed from exhaustion, but his son added that he had seen “something flying”. That’s when Abushaban realised it had been a drone.
“Later, he told me that when she fell to the ground, he asked her, ‘Shall I call Baba?’ and she whispered faintly, ‘Yes,’” he added.
When Abushaban rushed upstairs, he said there wasn’t much blood, but his wife wasn’t responding.
“I tried calling an ambulance, but the network was so bad. I tried maybe 70 times but couldn’t get through.”
He then called his brother, who drives a water truck, and asked for help transporting her to hospital.
At al-Quds Hospital in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of southwestern Gaza City, doctors referred them to al-Ahli Arab (Baptist) Hospital, the only hospital in Gaza with a functioning CT scanner.
“We moved her around for more tests, all in the water truck because there were no ambulances available, and finally to the intensive care unit at al-Shifa Hospital. The doctors found that the bullet had entered above her right ear and exited above her left ear,” Abushaban said.
“They told us her condition was critical, and that all we could do was pray.”
Doctors reported a 5mm displacement in brain tissue, along with a severed artery and vein in the brain.
Khudari died 72 hours later, at 6:30am on 19 August.
‘Playing with our fate’
Abushaban has been left in shock by what happened.
“She was hit by a quadcopter drone, which means the person controlling it could see clearly,” he said.
“With the technology the Israeli army has, they could easily identify who the target was. They could see she was a woman, a mother, with her child next to her.
‘While enjoying his time operating a drone, an Israeli soldier was playing with our fate’
– Ibrahim Qandil Abushaban, Gaza City resident
“There is no explanation other than a soldier deliberately toying with the fate of a family, aiming to terrorise an entire city.”
The family lives near the Abu Mazen roundabout in southwestern Gaza City, an area not marked as a red zone and considered relatively safer than much of the city.
“There is no excuse for opening fire on women hanging laundry. But the Israelis said it openly: the high number of deaths is meant to terrify future generations,” he continued.
In leaked audio recordings broadcast last week, former head of Israeli military intelligence, Aharon Haliva, said Palestinians “need to face a Nakba every now and then,” adding that the spiralling death toll in Gaza is “necessary”.
“The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,” he said.
According to Abushaban, that is why his wife was targeted.
“While enjoying his time operating a drone, an Israeli soldier was playing with our fate. He killed a mother of four and destroyed an entire family,” he said.
The army has killed at least 62,000 Palestinians and wounded over 150,000.
According to the army’s own data, 83 percent of those killed were civilians.
