RESIDENTS of Gaza’s Al Maghazi refugee camp returned to their neighbourhood on Monday, only to find blocks of concrete strewn where their homes had stood just a day ago.

“These houses are destroyed. Our house was bombed,” said camp resident Abu Rami Abu Al Ais amid the debris.

“There’s no safe place in the Gaza Strip.”

Three houses in the camp were hit late on Sunday by Israeli air strikes that killed at least 70 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Israel says it issues evacuation orders and warnings so civilians can get to safety before military activity, but Zeyad Awad said there was no advisory before the strike.

“What should we do? We are civilians, living peacefully and wanting only safety and security,” he said.

“Yet we are suddenly struck by Israeli warplanes without any warning.”

The Israeli military said it was “reviewing the incident”.

Swathes of Gaza Strip have been razed in blistering Israeli bombardments since the Hamas raid on Oct 7.

On Monday returning camp residents were shocked to see the scale of destruction, some describing how their children had panicked when the blast occurred.

“The Israeli army does not spare civilians... They (are) causing extensive, enormous destruction and panic in the hearts of my children,” said Awad.

“My child said to me `Protect me. What’s happening? I can’t breathe’.”

Television footage showed several residents walking through the debris, inspecting the damage caused by the night-time strike. Some hugged each other and burst into tears.

Several charred vehicles could be seen scattered on the roads, while children searched through the wreckage to find their books.

Al Maghazi camp is one of several in Gaza and was established in 1949, according to the UN, to shelter refugees who fled hostilities at the time of Israel’s creation the year before.

Many who fled Al Maghazi camp after the strikes on Sunday were doing so again, after already escaping attacks in northern Gaza.

One of them was Rawan Manasra, originally from Beit Hanun. The strike in the camp decimated her family, she said.

“They (Israeli army) killed my five brothers. I no longer have brothers. They killed them along with their children and wives,” Manasra said.

“Every day there are strikes... They tell us to move from the north to the south, then they chase us and attack us.” The wounded from Sunday’s strike were taken to Deir Al Balah hospital in central Gaza, one of the few hospitals still partly functioning. Some were on stretchers while volunteers carried others in their arms.

“It’s a massacre,” health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said.

“Dozens of injured people are becoming martyrs due to the inability to treat them immediately,” he added.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have repeatedly struck hospitals, which are protected under international humanitarian law, and desperation is growing among medical staff over their inability to treat people.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of having tunnels under hospitals and using the medical facilities as command centres, a charge the group denies.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2023