Each morning, Mahmoud Ayyad walks up to the roof of his apartment building in Gaza city's Al Rimal neighbourhood and sees them standing tall: towering structures visible from kilometres away.
For many people elsewhere, cranes come with construction and development, but for residents of Gaza, they represent something different. “They are like a ticking bomb,” Mr Ayyad told The National.
According to Gaza's Government Media Office, Israeli forces have installed 23 cranes across different locations east of the yellow line that separates Israeli-controlled areas from civilian population centres. The cranes are equipped with machineguns and advanced surveillance systems, the media office said.
Families living in parts of Gaza far from the border and even further from active battlefields describe a constant sense of vulnerability because of the cranes.
Mr Ayyad, 35, has rearranged his family's entire life around the threat of these mounted guns. His apartment's living room and a bedroom facing east are no longer used by his wife and children. Bullets have struck the walls of the fifth-floor home more than once.
“We only enter them with extreme caution,” he said.
For many residents, the sight of the cranes has become part of their daily psychological pressure. They can be seen from certain rooftops, upper floors of apartment buildings and open areas throughout much of western Gaza.
Prof Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the INSS and the Misgav Institute in Jerusalem, said that the Israeli army's goal is to increase its visibility. “On the ground, there are so many demolished houses that it is hard to see far. To see, you need to go higher up. This is a tactical issue the Israeli army is dealing with; you need better monitoring in this area to prevent Hamas from rearming itself,” he told The National.
In northern neighbourhoods such as Al Rimal, where residents once gathered in coffee shops, parks and on seaside promenades, many now weigh simple decisions such as where to sit, which room to use and whether to walk outside, with concerns about potential gunfire and surveillance.
“We modify our routines, avoid rooftops, limit movement in open areas and keep children indoors whenever possible,” said one resident.
On June 13, Khalil Al Masri, 42, a resident of Gaza city, was with friends at a coffee shop on Al Thawra Street in the central Al Rimal neighbourhood when he was shot. It was an ordinary afternoon until he was critically injured by a bullet that entered his chest and exited through his back. He was rushed to a hospital where, hours later, he died.
Al Thawra Street is far from the eastern part of the city, where the cranes are located, and from any military confrontation. “He left behind his family,” his cousin, Mohammed Al Masri, told The National.
Local investigators informed the family that no drones were operating overhead at the time of the shooting and no nearby source of gunfire was identified. The shot most likely originated from one of the cranes positioned east of Gaza city, according to the investigators. The Israeli army has not commented on the incident.
Since the latest ceasefire took effect in October 2025, about 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and 3,152 injured, according to local health authorities.
