The battle of northern Gaza is almost over

A CITY which, six weeks ago, was home to nearly 1m people is now a hollow shell. When The Economist was invited on November 14th to join an Israeli military-supply convoy to al-Shati, a once-cramped refugee camp in northern Gaza, none of its 90,000 residents was there. Many of the camp’s dense apartment buildings had been destroyed; others were badly damaged. Armoured columns of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had torn up roads. Electricity, water and sewage infrastructure no longer exist. The situation is similar in much of Gaza city and in outlying towns.

After six weeks of war and three weeks of ground fighting, Israel now has effective control of the area north of Wadi Gaza, a riverbed that bisects the 45km-long strip (see map). The devastation heralds the end of one phase of Israel’s war against Hamas, which began on October 7th after the Palestinian Islamist group carried out a massacre that ended with around 1,400 Israelis killed or kidnapped. Weeks of Israeli action have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza. They have also, in effect dislodged Hamas from power, at least in the north of the enclave: the group that has controlled Gaza since 2007 is now scattered and reeling.