Strategies for building defensive urban systems for residential neighborhoods within warfare ar-eas: Case study Gaza strip.

Wars are destructive human actions causing unprecedented loss in civilian pop-ulation besides the massive scale of devastation in towns and cities. Following the Egyptian comprehensive reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip, the research ex-plores the opportunities of reconstructing a resilient residential neighborhood based on defensive strategies, after October’s 2023 war. The study adopted a qualitative approach based on a dense literature survey. Consequently, it devel-oped an analytical synthesis integrating urban resilience and defensive strategies practiced by different countries and presented through a comprehensive guiding toolkit. The results validated the theoretical toolkit through a practical interpretation, offering a graphical reconstruction action plan proposed for a hypothetical neighborhood in the North Gaza governorate. The paper aims to present a guid-ing tool participating in the reconstruction decision-making process. The study is affirming the importance of performing a mind shift in reconstructing cities facing continuous lethal attacks and causing the loss of thousands of civilians’ lives. It offers a residential neighborhood reconstruction method targeting the protection of civilians during bombardments, and substituting the traditional reconstruction approaches.