Israeli Airstrikes Decimate the Last Restaurant in Gaza City in Nightmarish Bloodbath
Journalist Rasha Abou Jalal recounts horrific scenes from a massacre at a beloved restaurant and a bustling market—destroyed by a triple Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.
GAZA CITY—On Wednesday afternoon, two Israeli airstrikes slammed into Thai Restaurant—the last restaurant still open in Gaza City—turning a once bustling gathering place into a panorama of death. A third, near simultaneous, airstrike hit a nearby crowded market on al-Wahda street, sending body parts everywhere.
At least thirty-three Palestinians were killed and nearly ninety wounded in the three airstrikes, according to the health ministry, though the actual death toll is likely higher. Many of the dead and wounded were customers enjoying a hot drink in the restaurant, or people in the market trying to find food during a full-spectrum siege that has suffocated Gaza for over two months.
In these days of bloodshed, Wednesday was a particularly bloody day. Earlier this week, Israel vowed to escalate its already savage assault. At least ninety-two people were killed across Gaza today, most of them women and children, Ismail Al-Thawabteh, the Director-General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, told Drop Site.
The scene inside the restaurant in the aftermath of the attack was nightmarish. Customers lay on the ground drenched in their own blood. Pieces of pizza were scattered across the tables and floor. In my shock, I, at first, thought the red stains on the floor were ketchup, but it was all blood. There was blood everywhere.
Before the war, this restaurant was once a Gaza City landmark—bustling with patrons and offering Thai dishes, shawarma, and grilled chicken. Destroyed during Israel’s carpet bombing campaign, the restaurant was rebuilt during the brief ceasefire that went into effect in January, offering Palestinians here a glimmer of hope and a return to some semblance of normalcy.
After Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, most restaurants were eventually forced to close. Thai Restaurant, somehow, managed to remain open, serving only hot drinks and slices of pizza.
As the weeks went by, the restaurant became a popular gathering place for journalists who are always looking for power sources to charge their phones and equipment, and a place with reliable internet to file their stories.
I would come to the restaurant at least twice a week with my laptop and sit at one of the tables to finish my articles—to report the ongoing genocide of my people to the world. My last visit there was just two days ago. I thought it was a safe place, but in this land of death, there is no such thing.
When the bombs fell on Wednesday, Abeer Sabri and her friend were sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant. The two women were trying to steal a few moments away from the daily burdens of war and siege—standing in line for hours to get water, or lighting firewood to make a thin soup for their children.
"I hadn’t seen my friend for more than a year and a half, because of the war and repeated displacements, so we agreed to meet here at Thai Restaurant," 28-year-old Abeer said, still in shock and struggling to catch her breath. "We ordered two cups of coffee, we were laughing together—then everything turned to hell." She was still in shock, as she spoke, and struggling to catch her breath.
“A loud explosion shook the place. I felt dizzy and closed my eyes,” she said. “When I opened them, I found myself drenched in a pool of blood; it wasn’t mine or my friend’s—it was from the other customers. I stood in disbelief. How had I survived?”
Among the dead was a young boy who sold coffee to customers. I would see him whenever I visited. I still remember his smile.
The journalist Yahya Sobeih was also killed. He was one of the journalists who regularly frequented Thai Restaurant. Just hours before he was killed, he had welcomed his newborn daughter into the world. He shared a photo on Instagram of him cradling her in his arms, calling her his “little princess” in the caption. He couldn’t have known that his first embrace of her would be his last. When his wife heard the news of her husband’s death, she suffered a nervous breakdown and slipped into a deep state of shock, drifting in and out of consciousness.
Sobeih’s close friend Soheil Amer said that Sobeih has spent the entire war reporting for several media outlets. Sobeih was particularly interested in stories of the displaced and posted his work on social media. “I was shocked when I heard Yahya was martyred,” Amer said.
In the aftermath of the attack, the head chef of the restaurant, Abu Saleh Abdo, was in a state of disbelief that he had survived the massacre. “How long will we keep dying every day? Children, women, the elderly, even animals haven’t been spared from the killing. There were no fighters here, just customers and some families trying to relive fragments of their past lives. What was their crime to be bombed like this? It’s absolute savagery,” he said.
“There’s no hope left for survival. If you don’t die from bombing, you die from hunger or disease. This war must stop now.”
Next to Thai Restaurant, at the street market where the third airstrike hit, the scene was even more horrific. Bodies were strewn across the ground. Three members of one family—a father, mother, and their child— lay dead in a pool of blood. Many street vendors were killed, their stalls destroyed. The body parts of customers who had come to try and find food for their children were scattered everywhere.
Inside the home of 16-year-old Nahid Qanoua, who was killed in the market attack, his mother was consumed with grief and wailing. Tears streamed down her face, as she kissed his forehead for the last time before his body was taken away for burial. I tried to comfort her with words of condolence. “He celebrated his birthday yesterday,” she said. “Today he wore his best clothes and went to the market to find food. What was his crime to be killed like this?”
Wednesday’s massacres occurred in the midst of a brutal siege of Gaza. Famine is setting in. Flour supplies have been depleted. Food warehouses are empty. Most charity kitchens have shut down due to a lack of basic goods, like beans and rice.
The attacks do not stop. The bombs fall everywhere, every day. In Gaza, Palestinians who have been displaced multiple times are being bombed in shelters. On Wednesday, two schools sheltering displaced families were bombed in Gaza City, one in the north and one in al-Bureij in central Gaza. The strikes killed forty-nine people, including another journalist, Nour Al-Din Abdo.
Restaurants, charity kitchens, schools, shelters, and tents have all been hit. At least 235 schools and shelters have been bombed according to Al-Thawabteh: “It reflects Israel’s clear intent to cause the highest number of casualties among displaced civilians. It constitutes a full-fledged war crime and a continuation of the genocide being carried out against our people,” he said.
Al-Thawabteh held the U.S. administration responsible for the ongoing massacres, accusing it of providing unlimited military, political, and financial support to the Israeli government. He called on the international community to take immediate action to stop these crimes, protect civilians, and hold Israel accountable in international courts. Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues its relentless bombing of Gaza.
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The inhumanity by these Zionist terrorists committing genocide with the support of America in general and my tax dollars in particular is utterly horrendous horrific heinous… sacrilegious to true Judaism. NOT IN MY NAME!
I don’t know what else to do to stop this. Have demonstrated in the streets, sent money to aid organizations and hospital and to the few politicians who have voted to stop the funding. Have written letters and email to the WH (Biden), the VP Harris, written letters endless comments, some of which were not published by the NYT, which along with most other msm, is complicit. My thoughts: demonstrate in front of DNC headquarters; demonstrate in front of the NYT. Most Democratic members of Congress, together with all of their Republican counterparts, regularly vote to continue the funding. This includes, of course, Cory Booker, who apparently is launching his second bid for the presidency. VP candidate Tim Waltz refused to answer a recent question by Chris Hayes in MSNBC as to whether, looking back, he and Harris should have taken a different position on Gaza. He was asked twice and twice gave a non answer. All of us who oppose this need to let them know loud and clear (and over and over) that we will not vote for supporters of genocide. It’s on them — not us.