“My family refused to leave. On Tuesday evening, the occupation bombed our house, completely destroying it and killing almost everyone inside,” he said.
Israeli occupation forces continue their relentless shelling of the Gaza Strip. In recent days, they have intensified their bombing of the central regions.
In an attempt to advance in the central Gaza area from the ground, Israeli troops have penetrated the Bureij refugee camp, bombing and shelling residential homes, erasing entire blocks and killing many people.
The bombardment was focused mostly on Bureij, Nuseirat, Maghazi and Dir Al-Balah.
The Palestine Chronicle spoke with Mohammed al-Hazqi, who has lost 16 members of his family in one Israeli strike targeting their homes in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
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“After 80 days of continuous shelling, we were already living in fear, pain, and anxiety. That’s even before the occupation bombed our house in the Al-Kalaboush neighborhood in the Nusairat refugee camp,” al-Hazqi told us.
“On the evening of Tuesday, December 26, the shelling intensified on the Nusairat camp, and Israeli occupation forces began their ground incursion into Al-Bureij camp. Hundreds of families tried to flee Israeli shelling, fearing the occupation’s ground invasion,” al-Hazqi said.
“My family refused to leave. On Tuesday evening, the occupation bombed our house, completely destroying it and killing almost everyone inside,” he said.
“My brother Khaled, his wife, and their children; they were all killed, as well as my brother Fadi, his wife, and their children, along with my sister and aunt. Sixteen members of my family were killed in the bombing. We buried them in the old camp cemetery alongside the other martyrs who were killed before.’
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Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands wounded in the Nuseirat area since the start of the war.
What contributed to the high number of casualties is that the population of the camp has increased by at least four folds, as Israeli drove most of the northern Gaza population towards the central regions, assuring them that it would be safer there.
It wasn’t. “The (Israeli) missile penetrated my room but exploded on the lower floor,” al-Hazqi continued.
“It wasn’t my destiny to be martyred with my family,” he lamented.
“My mother, father, brother, and many others in my family were injured in the bombing. We are now all living at the hospital”.
“My wish is for the war to end soon, so that we can rebuild our home, treat my mother and all the injured members of my family,” he said.
“I hope Gaza can return to its beauty, and that occupation will be held accountable for its crimes. My family members were just the latest victims of these crimes and were added to a long list of Palestinians who were martyred by the occupation of Palestine since 1948.”
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According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 21,978 Palestinians have been killed, and 57,697 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Abdallah Aljamal is a Gaza-based journalist. He is a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle in the Gaza Strip.
I desperately want peace for Palestine, I truly do. I am doing all I can to try and make it happen. Peace is our only viable solution.