As if struck by an earthquake, vast swathes of the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiyya have been reduced to rubble, with unknown numbers of burnt and decaying bodies buried below.
As a 12-hour ceasefire took effect Saturday, survivors began to venture out of their homes to survey what was left, while those who had fled cautiously returned to see what had become of the only homes they had ever known.
As of 2 p.m., medical teams had already recovered 85 bodies from the rubble.
Shell-shocked residents, meanwhile, wandered through the neighborhood, with one local telling Ma'an that returnees "could not even find the location of their houses."
Yasser Hamdiyya, who lost four members of his family in the assault so far, came to check on his four-story building in Shujaiyya.
He told Ma'an that the building used to house 22 people, but upon his return he found only a pile of stones. At least 20 neighboring buildings had been leveled as well, he said. more
Comments
Post a Comment