Gaza families erased in a new wave of brutal Israeli strikes

A 70-day truce is being negotiated in Cairo amid global outcry

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Israel’s war in Gaza has dragged on for 19 months, but the past three days have shown just how relentless it remains.

Entire families have been wiped out in a wave of strikes attacking homes, schools, tents and more, despite a global outcry that has so far failed to pressure Israel into halting the war.

Among the most harrowing Israeli attacks was the bombing of Fahmi Al Jarjawi school in the Al Daraj neighbourhood of central Gaza city, where hundreds of displaced families had sought shelter.

“The school was supposed to be a place of safety. Instead, it was turned into an inferno,” Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence body, told The National. Medics announced the death of 40 people, mostly children and women.

A Palestinian boy sits at the destroyed building of the Fahmi Al Jarjawi school following the Israeli air strike. EPA

The Israeli missile strike ignited a massive blaze that swept through the school building and the tents pitched inside its grounds. Civil defence teams battled for hours to extinguish the flames.

“We heard desperate cries for help from people trapped alive inside the blaze,” Mr Basal said. “But the fire was too intense. We couldn’t get to them.”

Hussein Muhaysin, a paramedic who rushed to the scene, was the first to rescue Ward Al Sheikh Khalil, a young girl pulled from the wreckage just before the flames reached her.

“She was moments away from death,” he told The National. “When we pulled her out, she was in shock, silent, trembling, unable to comprehend what had just happened.”

Little Ward survived. But her family did not.

“We couldn’t bring ourselves to tell her that her entire family was killed in the bombing,” said Mr Muhaysin. “Only her father survived, and he is now in critical condition,” he added.

“We see tragedy every day, but holding a child who has lost everything, who doesn’t even know yet, that’s a kind of pain no one can explain.”

Sudden death

In the northern town of Jabalia, the Abdel Rabbo family suffered a similar fate. At dawn on Monday, Israeli warplanes struck their home with a massive missile, killing 19 people, most of them women and children.

“It was sudden,” Moumen Abdel Rabbo, 28, a relative who rushed to the scene, said. “The house was completely flattened. Ambulances barely made it through to recover the wounded and the dead. Some bodies are still trapped under the rubble.”

They didn’t want anyone to escape

Suheir Al-Najjar

Even as family members tried to dig through debris, Israeli drones buzzed overhead, and surrounding areas continued to be shelled.

“How can we search for survivors under fire?” asked the relative. “These were civilians, mothers, toddlers, elderly people. This wasn’t a military target. It was our home.”

The Israeli army claimed that it was hitting Hamas targets in both areas. But images and footage of the attacks showed dozens of Palestinian women and children dead or injured.

Over the past three days, more than 75 people have been killed across various parts of the besieged territory, cut off from sufficient aid, leaving over two million people trapped between fire and famine.

Despite a global demand for an end to the war, amid rising calls for sanctions against Israel, the ceasefire negotiations have stalled for months.

Not a target

The negotiations resumed in Cairo on Monday, with mediators from Egypt, the US and Qatar presenting a slightly amended version of a previous proposal for a 70-day truce and the release of 10 Israeli hostages, according to sources close to the talks.

Of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas, only about 20 are believed to be alive, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The sources told The National that a mid-level Israeli team of negotiators and a senior Hamas official were due in Cairo on Monday to join the mediators. They added that the US administration is using Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American, as an intermediary or go-between with Hamas.

According to the sources, the negotiations include talks on a "long-term" ceasefire that will commence during the 70-day truce. They were expected to also cover the departure from Gaza and into exile of senior officials from Hamas, as well as the group's ally, the Islamic Jihad.

On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israel's recent attacks on Gaza are taking a humanitarian toll on civilians that can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas.

"Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism," he told broadcaster WDR in a televised interview.

Walaa Al Kilani, right, mourns with other relatives over the bodies of her mother and brother, who were killed when an Israeli military strike hit a school sheltering displaced residents. AP

One of the most tragic killings in the past days was the story of Dr Alaa Al Najjar, a physician working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the south, who lost nine of her 10 children in a single Israeli air strike on their home while she was saving lives elsewhere.

“The Israeli army hit my uncle’s house with one missile that didn’t explode,” Suheir Al Najjar, a cousin, told the National. “Then came a second missile, which reduced the house to ashes.”

“There was no time between the two strikes. They didn’t want anyone to escape. It was a deliberate attempt to kill them all at once,” said Ms Al Najjar.

“My uncle and his wife are doctors. They have no links to armed groups. They spent the war treating the wounded, saving lives,” she said. “This was a family, not a target.”

Only the husband and one of the sons survived. Both remain in intensive care. The bodies of two of the nine children are still missing, buried beneath the rubble.