On the morning of 9 October 2023, the Trans area of the open market in Jabaliya refugee camp was bustling. Two days into the Gaza war triggered by Hamas’s surprise attack in Israel, it had yet to be hit by Israeli jets.
The camp, just north of the city of the same name, was established in 1948. Though technically still a refugee camp, in the ensuing decades it had become largely indistinguishable from the rest of northern Gaza’s urban sprawl – densely populated, vibrant and busy. As well as the large open market at its centre, there were restaurants and schools, two football teams, bakeries and clinics.
