Beit Hanoun, Gaza: Thousands of residents who had fled Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza used a brief pause in fighting Saturday to inspect the large-scale destruction: scores of homes were pulverized, wreckage blocked roads and power cables dangled in the streets.
The 12-hour truce was the only immediate outcome from a high-level mediation mission by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-moon over the past week. They failed, however, to broker a weeklong ceasefire as a precursor to a broader deal after Israel rejected it late Friday night.
Instead, Israel’s defence minister warned he might soon expand the ground operation in Gaza “significantly.”
Siham Kafarneh, 37, sat on the steps of a small grocery, weeping. The mother of eight said the home she had spent 10 years saving up for and moved into two months earlier had been destroyed.
“Nothing is left. Everything I have is gone,” she said.
Israel launched a major air assault in Gaza on July 8 and later sent ground troops into the Hamas-ruled territory in an operation it said was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire and destroying cross-border tunnels used for attacks.
At least 985 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded over the past 19 days, according to Palestinian officials. Israeli strikes have destroyed hundreds of homes, including close to 500 in targeted hits, and forced tens of thousands of people to flee.
More than 160,000 displaced Palestinians have sought shelter at dozens of UN schools, an eight-fold increase since the start of Israel’s assault, the UN said.
Israel has lost 37 soldiers. On Saturday, ambulances of the Red Crescent reached the hardest-hit areas, including Beit Hanoun and the eastern Shijaiyah district of Gaza City, to recover bodies.
Eighty-five bodies were pulled from the rubble Saturday, many of them partially decomposed, said Palestinian health official Ashraf Al Qedra. In two border areas, ambulances were unable to approach because tanks fired warning shots, the Red Crescent said.
In the southern town of Khan Younis, 20 members of a family, including at least 10 children, were killed by tank fire that hit a building on the edge of town, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al Qedra.
The house partially collapsed and people were buried under the rubble. The family had recently moved into the building after fleeing fighting in a nearby village, said Al Qedra.
Hundreds of men marched in a funeral procession in Khan Younis Saturday afternoon, while carrying the bodies, all wrapped in white cloth and some with bloody stains.
The Israeli military said troops would respond to any violations of the lull and continue “operational activities to locate and neutralise tunnels in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli government has also begun suggesting that Gaza be demilitarized as a condition for a permanent cease-fire so that Hamas cannot rearm itself. The current war is the third in Gaza in just over five years.
In Beit Hanoun, the streets were filled at midmorning with frantic residents, many of whom had walked several miles from temporary shelters to inspect the damage to their homes and retrieve belongings.
Ambulances with wailing sirens and donkey carts loaded with mattresses and pots soon clogged the streets.
At the Beit Hanoun hospital, six patients and 33 medical staff had spent a terrifying night huddled in the X-ray department as the neighborhood was being shelled, said director Bassam Abu Warda.
A tank shell had hit the second floor of the building, leaving a gaping hole, and the facade was peppered with holes from large-caliber bullets.
On Saturday, the remaining patients were evacuated, including 85-year-old Nasra Naim.
