At least 23 Palestinian families were displaced. They were not offered compensation or alternative housing, leaving some with only the option of living in tents.

One year later, they are apparently still on the streets.

And yet, not a single mainstream news outlet has reported the story.

On December 15, 2020, barely three weeks before the bulldozers were dispatched to Rafah, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Land Authority reportedly green-lighted the expropriation of 13.6 acres of territory with the goal of expanding the commercial crossing with Egypt.

Hamas asserted that the “residents do not hold title deeds proving their ownership,” but the evicted families told Al-Monitor that this was not uncommon, and made clear that their plots were “registered at the real-estate property department of the municipality of Rafah as nongovernment lands.”

The Hamas-appointed mayor of Rafah warned that Hamas’ disregard placed “more than 90% of Rafah’s lands” at risk of confiscation.

“We have been living on this land and cultivating it for more than 40 years — that is, before Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and even before the founding of Hamas in 1987,” resident Mohammed Abu Shteiwi said.

He added: “The families who live on these lands have no other shelter.”

Abu Shteiwi subsequently wrote a post on Facebook, where he also shared photos and videos of people living in squalor, and stated that Hamas’ actions were “an attack and assault. Destruction of our property, stealing of land, beating women and residents forcefully with no right.”

It garnered few, if any denunciations from foreign governments.

On January 10, 2022, Abu Shteiwi again took to Facebook: “Since a year and more, some people lived on the rubbles of their homes in the cold weather until this moment.”