• ‘We have had enough ... every day there’s death,’ says grieving sister

GAZA: Israeli attacks in Gaza on Thursday killed at least 44 more Palestinians, including a couple and their four children who died when an airstrike flattened their home in northern Gaza City.
The strike came as the family was sleeping, said Nidal Al-Sarafiti, a relative. “What can I say? The destruction has spared no one,” he said.

At least 10 people were killed in another strike on a former police station in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza. “The bombing was extremely intense and it shook the entire area,” said survivor Abdel Qader Sabah, 23. “Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing.”

Elsewhere at least 28 Palestinians were killed in a series of strikes across Gaza, including several in the southern area of Khan Younis. “We were sitting in peace when the missile fell,” said Mohammed Faris, who saw a strike on a house in the city. “I just don’t understand … what’s happening.”

Bodies lay on the ground around him, including those of a young woman and a boy in body bags, surrounded by grieving relatives kissing and stroking their faces. “One by one we are …  dying in pieces,” said Rania Al-Jumla, who lost her sister in another airstrike in Khan Younis. “We have had enough. Every day there’s death, every day we lose someone dear to us.”

The Durra Children’s Hospital in Gaza City was out of operation a day after an Israeli strike hit the upper part of the building, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar power system. No one was killed.

Gaza’s health system has been devastated by Israel’s 18-month war, putting many of the enclave’s hospitals out of action, killing doctors and other medical staff, and blocking the delivery of crucial supplies.

Mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt have ground to a halt after failing to deliver a sustainable truce between Israel and Hamas.

Reuters – AFP