Qatari Foreign Ministry: Negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides continue despite the attacks

In the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a man shouts amid the rubble of his house after an Israeli air strike: “Where are my children?” It is forbidden, world… Where are the children?’, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

In the besieged Palestinian Strip, “the war returned with all ferocity” today (Friday), according to what Anas Abu Daqqa (22 years old), who also lost his home.

With the end of the truce between Israel and Hamas this morning, and the resumption of military operations, Palestinian men, women and children began to flee again.

The truce that took effect between Hamas and Israel on November 24 ended at five o’clock GMT, and allowed for the release of dozens of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for three times the number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

At exactly 7:00 local time, Israel resumed the bombing operations it had launched continuously for 7 weeks before the truce, and Gaza residents began to flee in large numbers.

Residents of the Gaza Strip flee on motorcycles, bicycles, or in vehicles, but most of the time on foot, carrying plastic bags containing some possessions, and they walk in long lines, whose progress is hindered by some accidents amid the prevailing chaos.

“We were asleep”

Marwa Saleh (47 years old), who fled from Gaza to the city of Khan Yunis (south), said: “Bombing is everywhere, and there is no food, drink, or clothing. The stores are empty, the weather is cold, and the crossing is closed” to Egypt.

A spokeswoman for Agence France-Presse asked: “When will the world see us as human beings?” My family and I are civilians and we are not a party to this war.”

Israel pledged to “eliminate” the Hamas movement in response to an unprecedented attack launched by the movement inside the territory of the Hebrew state on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians who died on the first day of the attack, according to the Israeli authorities.

Israel responded with a devastating bombing campaign and a large-scale ground attack, killing more than 15,000 people, including more than 6,000 children.

Only a few hours after the end of the truce, the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government announced that more than sixty people had been killed, including children, as a result of the Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip.

1.7 million of the Strip’s 2.4 million people were displaced from the north, the most devastated region, to the south, while more than 50 percent of the housing stock was damaged or completely destroyed as a result of the war, according to the United Nations.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Anas Abu Daqqa told Agence France-Presse: “Our homes were bombed while we were inside them, and we had approximately 7 injuries. Our homes were completely destroyed while we were inside them.”

One of his relatives, Jamil Abu Daqqa, with his head bandaged, explained: “We were in the house when the bombing started. We were subjected to aerial bombardment.” He added: “They destroyed our house, and this is our second house to be destroyed.”

For her part, Amal Abu Daqqa, wearing a blood-stained veil, said: “We were sleeping in our homes when they suddenly targeted the house.” She added, crying: “I don’t know what happened to my sons and daughters… They completely wiped out the area where we live.”

Lina Hamdan (10 years old) was sitting on one of the hospital beds crowded with injured people, and she said, crying, “I was sleeping when I heard the sound of bombing, and my brothers started screaming.”

“The hospital is operating at 200 percent of its capacity.”

UNICEF spokesman James Adler warned reporters in Geneva via video call from Gaza that “inaction gives the green light to kill children,” adding: “It is irresponsible to think that new attacks on the people of Gaza might lead to anything other than a massacre.” .

Adler said in a video filmed in a hospital in the Gaza Strip and published an hour before the end of the truce today: “We can already hear the sound of bombing. A strike targeted an area about 50 meters from here.”

He continued: “This hospital is the largest hospital still in service, and it is currently operating at 200 percent of its capacity. It simply cannot receive any more children wounded as a result of the war. All around it there are children who were sleeping when a bomb fell 50 meters from here.” ».

For her part, Manal Muhammad, who was displaced from Gaza City and lives today with dozens of relatives in a house in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, says that she no longer knows what she should do.

She complained to Agence France-Presse: “We thought the truce would continue and we would return to our homes, but they did not want us to live at all.”

She added: “They tell people to go to the south of the Gaza Strip, then they tell the south to go to the west of the city, and they bomb… Where do we go?”

Marwa Saleh only has one thought: “I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to lose anyone.”