Distraught, Mohammed Alloush, a Palestinian man from Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, arrived at his relatives’ home on Sunday to see what had happened after they were attacked by Israeli forces.
Arriving with dozens of his neighbors, Alloush was shocked to find the house, which once housed more than 50 residents, completely destroyed, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We heard screams for help from under the debris. Some were still alive. I had to help them and save them,” Alloush told Xinhua in a breaking voice.
However, neither Alloush nor any other respondent owns any equipment.
“We are forced to dig with our bare hands to help the injured and pull out as much of the dead as possible,” said the 35-year-old father of four, holding the body of a child in his arms.
“The situation here is very dangerous, because the Israeli army could attack again at home, but we have to race against time to save as many people as possible,” he said.
Alloush said he and his neighbors had to bury the dead in-place, and transfer the injured to Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals with the help of donkey carts, which were out of service.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli forces killed at least 36 members of Alloush’s family in an attack on his home in the Jabaliya refugee camp, according to locals and medical sources.
The Israeli military claimed that the attack was part of Israel’s massive military offensive in the area that began on October 5, aimed at killing the remnants of Hamas and preventing it from regrouping in the area.
Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, said that Israeli forces forced civil defense teams to leave the area and surrounded many locals inside their homes.
October 7, 2023 Israel launches a massive offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’s incursion through the southern Israeli border, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage Went.
Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday that the death toll of Palestinians from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 43,603, while 102,929 people have been injured.
In northern Gaza, the Israeli strike has killed more than 1,800 people, injured nearly 4,000 others and left hundreds missing, in addition to destroying all local hospitals, the Hamas-run government media office said in a press statement on Monday. Are.
Meanwhile, rescue operations in Gaza City remain difficult, despite the presence of civil protection services.
On Saturday night, Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinians in an attack on a house of the al-Khour family in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City.
“It was very difficult for ambulances and civil defense to reach the area quickly, so I decided to use my hands to rescue survivors and bury the dead in the morning,” said Palestinian Mohammed Dogmoush, 25. Told Xinhua.
Dogmosh said he and his friends used flashlights on their mobile phones to see clearly across the debris so they could rescue casualties as quickly as possible.
He said, “All the time, we are in a race against death, war and time. Therefore, we have to take the mission into our own hands and help each other as much as we can.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
