Gazans plunged back into chaos with resumption of Israeli strikes
World
Mourners cried over the bodies of their loved ones with drones buzzing overhead.
GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Mourners cried over the bodies of their loved ones with drones buzzing overhead early on Tuesday, as a wave of Israeli strikes plunged Gazans back into chaos.
"They opened the fire of hell again on Gaza," said Ramez al-Amarin, 25, a displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southeast of Gaza City.
"There are bodies and limbs on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them," he added.
Amarin said he transported several of his neighbours' children to hospital but there were no beds for them.
Outside the Al-Ahli hospital, which was already functioning at reduced capacity due to Israel blocking the entry of humanitarian aid to the territory, dozens of bodies had been lined up.
The bare feet of the dead protruded from under some of the shrouds, while relatives sat alongside them and held their heads in their hands and cried.
Amarin said he didn't "expect the war to return because (US President Donald) Trump said he doesn't want wars".
Overnight, Israel unleashed its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since a fragile ceasefire commenced on January 19, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 400 people killed.
Israel has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until all hostages held in the Palestinian territory are returned, with Prime Minister Netanyahu's office saying the operation was ordered after Hamas's "repeated refusal to release our hostages".
Hamas accused Netanyahu of deciding to "resume war" after an impasse in truce negotiations and warned that a return to fighting could be a "death sentence" for the hostages that Palestinian militants are still holding alive in Gaza.
The initial phase of the ceasefire took effect in January, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting which devastated the Gaza Strip.
The war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and triggered widespread hunger while destroying or damaging more than 69 percent of the territory's buildings according to the United Nations.
'REAL HELL'
Israel announced in early March that it was blocking all aid into the strip and a week later cut off electricity supplying the territory's main water desalination plant.
Gaza's civil defence agency has for weeks said that it lacks the supplies to provide first aid to the territory’s population of some 2.4 million people.
"There is bombing everywhere, today I felt that Gaza is a real hell," said Jihan Nahhal, 43, a mother living in northwest Gaza City, adding that some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.
Nahhal said she heard Israeli air force planes flying overhead as she prepared her pre-dawn meal -- the bombardment came with Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan in which they fast during daylight hours.
"Suddenly there were huge explosions, as if it were the first day of the war," she said.
"Everywhere there was screaming and fires raging, and most of them were children."
"It is a real war of extermination," she added, condemning Israel.
In Beit Hanoun, a northern town close to the Israeli border, residents began to flee with bags and blankets piled on their heads, even before the army urged them to evacuate on Tuesday morning.
In Gaza City, residents left a school that had been turned into a shelter for the displaced.
Some scoured through the rubble of buildings destroyed in the strikes in search of casualties.
Families in Deir el-Balah inspected the damage to their homes, as a woman held a shaken-looking young boy in her arms.
"This is my grandson, he was rescued from under the rubble," said Um Abdullah Masmah.
Standing amid debris, her neighbour, Eyad Sabah, said he felt like he'd "gone back to square one, back to zero."
"This night reminded us of the return of war once again," he said.
"How long will this situation continue?"
