Mourning and desperate flight after Israeli strike in Gaza

Photo: Agence France-Presse A group of Palestinians inspect the damage caused by an Israeli airstrike the previous night in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on October 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Agence France-Presse in Beit Lahia

Posted at 14:45 Updated at 19:08

• Middle East

In a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, families mourn their loved ones killed in a strike by the Israeli army, which has been waging an intense offensive in the besieged area since October 6.

A little further away, three children await treatment on a foam mattress, their faces covered in dust and bandages on their bodies.

In this small farming town, entire blocks of houses were destroyed Saturday by an aerial bombardment that killed at least 73 people, according to the Palestinian territory's emergency services.

At least 14 other victims are still under the rubble, inaccessible amid the gunfire and fighting, according to the rescuers.

In front of the Kamal Adwan hospital, a young woman places her hand on the body of a loved one wrapped in a white shroud and placed on the ground, near a pile of used latex gloves and packaging.

She has only a few moments to collect herself, exhausted. The bodies laid side by side, in front of which the families are gathered, are ready to be buried.

In the corridors, the wounded are treated on the ground, the children, barefoot, have a stunned look.

Dying “slowly”

When they have not been mowed down, many residents have fled, but no longer know where to go.

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“There is no room anywhere for us and our families,” explains Ibrahim Hamuda, 66, who has just arrived in Gaza City.

“We are no longer living, we are dying slowly,” adds this resident of Beit Lahia, who fled on Saturday evening, just before the strike.

“We left with nothing, the children under our arms, walking for a very long time to reach Gaza, we arrived exhausted, with nothing to eat or drink for the little ones,” adds his 33-year-old daughter, Mariam Hamuda.

Thousands of people walked all night towards the south to escape the ground fighting and the bombardments targeting northern Gaza, where the Israeli army says it is targeting Hamas fighters rebuilding their troops.

“The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying,” Tor Wennesland, the UN envoy for the Middle East peace process, said on Sunday. “Horrible scenes are unfolding in the northern Gaza Strip amid the conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and a worsening humanitarian crisis,” he said.

On Saturday, the territory’s Civil Defense said more than 400 people had died since the start of the military operation two weeks ago.

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Screaming in “terror”

“How long can this go on??” asks Ahmad Saleh, 36, who says his children screamed in “terror” all night.

“We are now trapped, without food, water, medicine, and we are at risk of starving amidst the rubble and destruction,” he says. “It is getting worse every day, and we are petrified, just wondering when our turn will come.” »

The Israeli army accuses Gaza health authorities of “exaggerating” the number of civilian casualties, particularly in Beit Lahia.

“Dozens of terrorists were eliminated in precise airstrikes [by the aviation] and close-quarters combat,” it said in a statement.

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures and including hostages killed or killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

More than 42,603 ​​Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign on the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Gaza Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.