The Gaza of maps and memories is gone, replaced by a monochrome landscape of rubble stretching flat and still for 180 degrees, from Beit Hanoun on one side to Gaza City on the other.
Beyond the distant shapes of buildings still standing inside Gaza City, there's almost nothing left to orient you here, or identify the neighbourhoods that once held tens of thousands of people.
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Israel does not allow news organisations to report independently from Gaza. Today it took a group of journalists, including the BBC, into the area of the Strip occupied by Israeli forces.
The brief visit was highly controlled and offered no access to Palestinians, or other areas of Gaza.
Military censorship laws in Israel mean that military personnel were shown our material before publication. The BBC maintained editorial control of this report at all times.
Asked about the level of destruction in the area we visited, Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said it was "not a goal".
"The goal is to combat terrorists. ...
It was not a goal? Was it accidental? Collateral damage.
"Almost every house had a tunnel shaft or was booby-trapped or had an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or sniper station," he said.
"Almost every house had a tunnel shaft or was booby-trapped or had an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or sniper station," he said.
So it WAS a goal. Why do you lie?
The ceasefire is almost a month old, but Israeli forces say they are still fighting Hamas gunmen along the yellow line "almost every day". The piles of bronze-coloured bullet casings mark the firing points on the embankments facing Gaza City.
Hamas has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire "hundreds of times", and Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 240 people have been killed as a result.
Col Shoshani said that Israeli forces were committed to the US-led peace plan, but that they would also make sure that Hamas no longer posed a threat to Israeli civilians, and would stay as long as necessary.
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The agreement has left Gaza in a tense limbo. Washington knows how fragile the situation is - the ceasefire has faltered twice already.
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President Trump has outlined his vision of Gaza as a futuristic Middle Eastern hub, built with foreign investment. It's a far cry from where Gaza is today[,] [l]argely destroyed by Israel, and seen as an investment by Trump...
The ceasefire is almost a month old, but Israeli forces say they are still fighting Hamas gunmen along the yellow line "almost every day". The piles of bronze-coloured bullet casings mark the firing points on the embankments facing Gaza City.
Hamas has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire "hundreds of times", and Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 240 people have been killed as a result.
Col Shoshani said that Israeli forces were committed to the US-led peace plan, but that they would also make sure that Hamas no longer posed a threat to Israeli civilians, and would stay as long as necessary.
...
The agreement has left Gaza in a tense limbo. Washington knows how fragile the situation is - the ceasefire has faltered twice already.
...
President Trump has outlined his vision of Gaza as a futuristic Middle Eastern hub, built with foreign investment. It's a far cry from where Gaza is today[,] [l]argely destroyed by Israel, and seen as an investment by Trump...
