An Israeli airstrike, and a family buried under rubble
Sana’a al-Kulak spent the night under the rubble. It was hard to breathe; her leg was trapped.
Her son, stuck beside her, managed to get out his phone and call for help. ‘‘We tried to hold out,’’ she said.
It was around five hours after Israeli airstrikes flattened their home before al-Kulak, 56, and her 24-year-old son, Mohammed, were pulled out by rescuers. It wasn’t until she got to the hospital that she learned the shattering news.
Her husband, two sons, a daughter, daughter-in-law and a 1-year-old grandchild had all been killed, alongside at least 11 other members of her extended clan who had lived across two fourstorey buildings in Gaza’s Wehda St.
Both buildings and another in the neighbourhood were reduced to rubble early Sunday, local time. Forty-two people, including 16 women and 10 children, were killed in the pre-dawn strikes, according to Gaza health authorities, in the deadliest incident in the current round of violence between Israel and Hamas. A list of 30 of the dead released by
the Mezan Centre for Human Rights, an advocacy group, included 17 members of the al-Kulak family.
The Israeli military said an initial investigation showed that the casualties had been ‘‘unintended’’. The aim of the strike, it said, was Hamas’ ‘‘military infrastructure’’ under the street outside.
The seven-day conflict, during which Hamas has fired more than 3100 rockets towards Israel, has seen airstrikes in Gaza of a ferocity that people here say surpasses that of previous conflicts.
Israeli warplanes unleashed a new series of heavy airstrikes at several locations of Gaza City, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled the fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers would rage on.
Explosions rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes yesterday morning in an attack that was heavier, on a wider area and lasted longer than a series of air raids 24 hours earlier in which 42 Palestinians were killed – the deadliest single attack in the latest round of violence between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 192 residents, including 58 children and 34 women, have died in the last week.
In Israel, 10 people have died as Hamas has fired intense barrages of rockets and missiles towards cities in an attempt to overwhelm air defences.
Sana’a al-Kulak said she woke at around 1am Sunday to the sound of bombing. The house was full. A son who ordinarily lives in northern Gaza had brought his wife home to stay with his parents in central Gaza, thinking it would be safer.
The bombardment was so frightening that some family members began to leave their third floor apartment for lower floors. Mohammed said his mother was at the door while others were on the stairs. ‘‘They didn’t reach the first floor,’’ he said.
The Israeli military says it was an indirect building collapse. Mohammed said he believes the building suffered a direct hit. It collapsed around Mohammed and his mother.
‘‘I tried to call the police, but the connection was very bad,’’ he said. ‘‘I didn’t know about the rest of the family.’’
He was dragged out at 6am; his mother was rescued half an hour later.
Israeli commanders say their targets have included what it terms the ‘‘Gaza Metro’’ – Hamas’ extensive network of tunnels that snake under the city. The military has struck to degrade the group’s rocket launching capacity; some attacks have been in the heart of Gaza City. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
The operation is the first test of a new ‘‘victory concept’’ espoused by Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s chief of staff. It aims to turn the Israeli military into what one Israeli Defence Forces document describes as a ‘‘significantly more lethal, networked war machine that can destroy enemy capabilities in record time and with the lowest possible casualties’’ and to shift away from the old methods known as ‘‘mowing the lawn’’ – campaigns that buy a little respite – to more decisive victories.
Part of it is adapting to more quickly identify targets in dense urban areas such as Gaza. ‘‘This,’’ Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said in a briefing, ‘‘is the doctrine and concept being applied.’’
For those in the city, it has felt as if there is no escape.
Maryam al-Kulak, a daughter of Sana’a, rushed to the nearby Shifa Hospital when she heard her family home had been destroyed.
The bodies of her father and one brother arrived first. Then her mother and Mohammed were brought in alive.
‘‘They bombed the house without warning, and without any reason,’’ she said. ‘‘There were civilians in it who do not deserve what happened to them.’’
Sana’a doesn’t feel a sense of revenge. ‘‘I just want the war to end,’’ she says.
She thanks God she’s alive. ‘‘But now there is no sense in life without my husband and children.’’