Israel Wipes Out Entire Families in Gaza

At least 74 Palestinians were killed in the bombardment, which flattened large swaths of buildings and tents sheltering families who had fled to Rafah from across Gaza.

Among the dead were 27 children and 22 women, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, whose researchers compiled the list from Rafah hospitals. The Israeli offensive has taken a heavy toll on women and children, with more than 12,300 Palestinian children and young teens killed in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday.

The 30-year-old Ibrahim, his parents and his brothers arrived in Rafah a month earlier, the latest of their multiple moves to escape fighting after fleeing their homes in northern Gaza. They rented a small, one-story house on the east side of Rafah.

Just after 2 a.m. Monday, Ibrahim began getting calls from friends telling him strikes had hit in the neighborhood where his family was staying. Unable to reach them by phone, he walked and hitched a motorcycle ride back home. He found massive destruction, he said.

The first thing he saw was a woman’s arm that had been hurled across the street to the door of a neighboring mosque. It was his mother’s. He dug through the rubble, pulling out body parts.

Later he went to the Youssef Najjar Hospital and identified the bodies of his mother and his father, Fawzi, an engineer. The body of his younger brother Mohammed had no head, but he recognized the clothes.

The extent of the bloodshed from the raid has increased fears of what could happen if Israel follows through with vows to attack Rafah in its campaign to destroy Hamas. The city and its surroundings now shelter more than half of the Gaza Strip’s entire population of 2.3 million after hundreds of thousands took refuge there.

Already, Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, more than 70percent of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.