I know this pales in comparison to the absolute enormity of human suffering unfolding minute by minute in Gaza, but this still hits me somewhere different. “erasing the city and its history”

this adds to the enormity, by erasing history... as you quoted. Palestine? Where was that?

destroying records (e.g., of who owned what property) seems a pretty fundamental part of ethnic cleansing not secondary at all here!

Destroy the records of the city’s past; raze buildings to rubble; kill the children. Past, present, and future destroyed.

The erasing of a peoples' mark on the land I always think how lucky the world is that early Christians did not succeed n their plan to erase anything by "pagans" Thank goodness for Arab Muslims did not share that view & religious leaders like Aquinas who saw the value in the thinking of "others"