Central Gaza Strip – Palestinians in Gaza’s smallest refugee camp found themselves once again digging up the bodies of their loved ones under the rubble, hours after Israeli forces announced their withdrawal from the area.
Witnesses at the Maghazi refugee camp say many residents were shot at point-blank range by Israeli soldiers “in cold blood.”
Piles of broken concrete and scenes of widespread destruction prove that homes were not spared from Israeli attacks, which included missile strikes and heavy artillery bombardments.
Israeli soldiers have been carrying out ground operations in northern, central and parts of southern Gaza for more than three months.
The Maghazi camp has been the target of Israeli attacks on several occasions in recent weeks.
In one of the deadliest attacks last month, more than 100 people were killed, most of them displaced women and children.
Dozens of other people are believed to have been killed in the camp in recent days.
Ambulances were unable to use destroyed roads and infrastructure to recover bodies.
The camp normally houses around 30,000 people, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA).
But the camp’s population has swelled to at least 100,000 people as thousands of frightened Palestinians have come to seek refuge from Israel’s relentless bombardment in other parts of the besieged enclave.
Attacks on refugee camps and civilian infrastructure have become commonplace since October 7.
The Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza were also targeted several times, as well as the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The attacks killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.
