Tallying the dead once again: Photos from the Gaza strikes

The Israeli military response devastated Gaza, killing tens of thousands of people, displacing millions and flattening towns. Day after day, month after month, survivors searched for the wounded and the dead.

They were doing so again in the hours after Israel’s latest airstrikes, which began before dawn Tuesday.

The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that he had ordered the strikes after Hamas’ “repeated refusal” to release the 59 hostages still being held in Gaza. Fewer than half are believed to be alive.

In an address, Netanyahu suggested that Israel would keep launching strikes in tandem with negotiations with Hamas. “This is just the beginning,” he said.

After the strikes, some went to morgues to identify missing relatives. Others wrapped bodies in shrouds and hurried to bury them. During much of the war, traditions of death like funeral processions and mourning tents had themselves become too dangerous to perform.

Many of the dead have been buried in common graves, courtyards and backyards, with prayers said quickly and under cover, rather than under the open sky.

With only a few of Gaza’s hospitals still functioning, survivors tried to administer whatever treatment to the wounded they could.

The dead and injured include a huge number of children, aid workers say. And while some grievously wounded children have left Gaza for medical care abroad, the border crossings are now closed. Those wounded in this week’s attacks can seek help only within the territory’s bounds.

More than 48,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began, according to local officials. Palestinians have mourned in the places they can, often outside hospitals or by the wreckage of their homes.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had struck sites and individuals affiliated with Hamas and another militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, across the enclave.

Hamas quickly re-emerged in public after the ceasefire was reached, seeking to show its dominance over Gaza and staging elaborate hostage release ceremonies that infuriated Israelis. In addition to Netanyahu’s assertion about Hamas’ refusal to release hostages, the Israeli military said it struck Gaza to prevent planned attacks on Israelis.

In past strikes on shelters, Israel has said that militants used them as bases and that it tries to minimise the harm to civilians. On Tuesday, the military hit at least one tent housing displaced people in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where thousands had fled.

The first phase of the ceasefire ended March 1, and although neither Israel nor Hamas immediately resumed fighting, the Israeli Government began ratcheting up its pressure on Gaza residents.

It halted all aid into the territory and severed sources of electricity, forcing people to scavenge for cooking firewood from the remains of homes.

Food and fuel are once again scarce. Scalpers are selling bread for three times the original price, and there is no more gasoline arriving for generators, ambulances or anything else.

The Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders, warning Palestinians about neighbourhoods subject to strikes. Families heeding them packed up again Tuesday, taking whatever they could.

With donkeys pulling carts, Palestinians who had returned only weeks ago to Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, left again. Israel ordered evacuations in the area Wednesday, warning residents of what it called “combat areas”.

Israel advanced deeper into Gaza on Wednesday, saying its soldiers had seized parts of a major corridor separating the enclave’s northern half from the south. The military said its goal was to create a “partial buffer zone” there.

Some wells are still functioning in central Gaza, but they supply only brackish water, which could cause long-term health problems, aid workers warn. Israel’s Energy Minister has suggested that water could soon be cut off. Its Foreign Ministry maintains that the territory has received sufficient aid and that Hamas is exploiting shipments.

Gaza has had little electricity since the first days of the war, when Israel cut off sources in its initial response to the 2023 Hamas attack. For months, Palestinians in Gaza lived in blackout conditions, with the territory’s essential services relying on solar panels and generators.

After another round of attacks, the panels have become more valuable than ever.

But solar panels can do only so much. Many Gaza residents remain in darkness.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Alan Yuhas

Photographs by: Saher Alghorra

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