Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp in ruins after deadly Israeli attack

Palestinians mourn relatives killed in an overnight Israeli strike on the Maghazi refugee camp during a mass funeral at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on December 24, 2023. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

Published On 25 Dec 202325 Dec 2023

Residents of Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp have returned to their neighbourhood to find only blocks of concrete lying where their homes had stood.

“These houses are destroyed. Our house was bombed,” Abu Rami Abu al-Ais said on Monday, standing in the debris. “There’s no safe place in the Gaza Strip.”

Late on Sunday, at least three houses in the camp were hit by Israeli air strikes, which killed more than 100 people, according to Al Jazeera correspondents.

Officials in Gaza said seven families were among the casualties.

Israel says it issues evacuation orders and warnings so civilians can get to safety before military attacks, but Zeyad Awad said there was no advisory before the strike.

“What should we do? We are civilians, living peacefully and wanting only safety and security, yet we are suddenly struck by Israeli warplanes without any warning,” he said.

The Israeli military said it was “reviewing the incident”.

The Maghazi refugee camp is one of several in Gaza and was established in 1949, according to the United Nations, to shelter refugees who were forced to flee occupied Palestinian territories during the creation of Israel the year before.

Many who fled Maghazi after Sunday’s strikes were displaced again after already escaping attacks in northern Gaza.

Palestinians survey the damage of an Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

The outside of an al-Nawasrah family home in Maghazi was sheared away in the attack. [Adel Hana/AP Photo]

Search and rescue efforts for those trapped under rubble are launched after Israeli air strikes hit residential areas in Maghazi. [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

A man holds a crying child at the Maghazi camp, where many who fled Israeli attacks in northern Gaza are now residing. [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency]

Men recover the body of a victim of the Maghazi attack. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

Maghazi residents return to their neighbourhood to find rubble. [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

Search and rescue efforts for those trapped under the rubble continue. [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

An injured Palestinian at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital attends the funeral for people killed in the Israeli strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in Deir el-Balah. [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency]