Sayed Abu Tahoun kneels, clutching the limp body of his daughter, Dalia, killed by Israeli tank fire outside their home in Gaza City.
His cry reverberates through the crowded halls of the hospital. Looking into her unseeing eyes, he cries out once more, clutching her tightly on the floor of Al-Shifa Hospital in desperate sorrow.
This and other scenes were documented in videos by journalists in Gaza and confirmed by NBC News on Saturday, a day after Israel announced it had launched the “initial phases” of its offensive on Gaza City.
Israel has vowed to take control of the largest city in the famine-gripped enclave, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians,
On August 22, Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, declared that the IDF would unleash “the gates of hell” on Gaza City unless Hamas agreed to Israel’s terms for concluding the conflict, which included releasing all hostages and disarming.
By Saturday, Israel’s latest assault had rained down on a city already buckling under famine, disease and displacement.
In a video from western Gaza City, a boy lies motionless, covered in dust from another airstrike, with blood oozing from a wound in his head.
At a bakery hit in a separate Israeli bombardment, another video showed rescuers carrying away child after child from the carnage.
On Saturday, Israeli airstrikes resulted in the deaths of at least 70 people throughout the Strip, with 47 casualties just from Gaza City, reported Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, to NBC News.
The Israeli military stated it had targeted a “key Hamas figure” during Saturday’s operations in Gaza City and claimed that “extensive measures were taken to minimize civilian casualties.”
When pressed for additional details on the strike, the Israeli Defense Forces did not answer questions from NBC News.
The assault on Gaza City, declared a “dangerous combat zone” by Israel, is expected to displace hundreds of thousands and has drawn global condemnation amid warnings that it could deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in the famine-stricken enclave.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said Friday that around 1 million people could be forcibly displaced again. The International Red Cross warned Saturday that evacuating the city under bombardment would be “impossible.”
Israel has told civilians to leave for the south of the Palestinian enclave.
Seeking refuge, Palestinians face airstrikes as well as increasing deprivation, following a declaration of famine in northern Gaza earlier in August, including Gaza City, by the world’s leading authority on hunger.
Under these conditions, disease is also a threat.
A virus causing high fever, joint pain and diarrhea is spreading rapidly in Gaza, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, Director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, told NBC News on Thursday.
He said immunodeficiency resulting from malnutrition, as well as overcrowding and a lack of clean water and cleaning materials, were causing the virus to spread.
After Israel carried out heavy strikes in the area on Friday residents, many of whom have been displaced several times during the war, started to flee. As tanks advanced in several areas, by afternoon Gaza City’s streets were crowded with newly displaced families.
Suleiman al-Hissi, 55, hauled what little he owned as his eight children clustered around him. “Enough!” he cried. “Stop this war! Where is the mercy? Where is the humanity?”
On Sunday, an aid flotilla carrying activists — including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg — was due to sail from Barcelona, aiming to breach Israel’s naval blockade and deliver humanitarian supplies.
The mission, the Global Sumud Flotilla, sought to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Israel denies committing genocide.
It has already intercepted two flotillas this summer, one carrying Thunberg, detaining the passengers in Israel before expelling them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday that the IDF had recovered the remains of two hostages from the Gaza Strip in a military operation this week.
It announced the retrieval of Ilan Weiss’s body along with the remains of another hostage, whose identity is now known to be that of Idan Shtivi but had not been disclosed at the time.
