On Saturday, 15 May 2021, the Israeli military called my father, who lived on the seventh floor of the tower. They told my father that because of the bombing in Tel Aviv, they were going to bomb the tower and that he should evacuate everyone from it. My father notified all the tenants, including the media outlets.
When I was told I had to evacuate, I was completely shocked. It hadn’t crossed my mind they’d bomb our tower, because it’s a civilian structure and famous international media outlets have offices in it, as well as private homes. I left the apartment with my family and started notifying all the other tenants.
Everyone went down into the street immediately. No one was able to take anything from their homes or offices. The foreign and Arab news agency workers weren’t able to take the expensive equipment from their offices, either. Luckily, we’d been keeping all our important documents and jewelry in a special bag for fear of such occasions, and we took it with us.
As soon as I went down, my brother-in-law came and picked up my wife and children. I stayed there, near the tower. A few journalists and tenants who’d evacuated the tower were with me. Those were very difficult moments. We waited to see what would happen. I felt that my hands were tied and I couldn’t do anything.
About 45 minutes later, two missiles were fired at the building from a drone, and about five minutes after that, a warplane bombed it. They fired several missiles. The building was completely destroyed, and it collapsed.
My father and my four brothers lived in the building with their families, too. We rented six apartments at the al-Murjan building, near Gaza City. We had a good life in the tower. It was close to my clothing store, and I could walk to work. All my beautiful memories since I got married are tied to that building. We started our family there. My son Hazem (21) has finished his information technology degree and my daughter, Danah, who’s in her last year of high school, is sitting her matriculation exams now. She’s been in shock ever since the tower was bombed. For 10 days, she couldn’t move or walk. It affected all of us badly, including my wife and younger daughters Sarah (16) and Mira (7). Everyone is very sad. The children lived their whole lives in that tower. They left behind all their clothes and personal belongings.
Building the tower cost about four million USD, including the cost of the land and construction. My family put a lot of work into gathering that money over many years.
Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Khaled al-'Azayzeh on 5 July 2021
