As the day progresses and we hear more about the [ceasefire] talks in Doha and Cairo, the attacks are increasing exponentially — the heavy artillery in the eastern part of the Strip is destroying more of the remaining residential buildings, Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera reports from Deir el-Balah, Gaza.

“People were literally forced to run in the streets away from the falling debris and shrapnel. A residential home was prewarned in the past few days but an attack did not occur until the past half an hour — and this leaves many people with a great deal of anxiety, waiting for the unknown,” the reporter said.

“Another element that people have to endure and try to survive is the byproduct of being forced into displacement — and sleeping in makeshift tents with improper living conditions — which is leading to the deaths of children. So far, we are looking at eight cases of death due to hypothermia among infants,” Mahmoud said.

He added that the emotional, psychological, and physical toll is particularly heavy on civil defence crews, who are sometimes unable to remove everyone and end up leaving and ceasing their operations because of the dangers involved in their work.