Palestinians in Gaza experience death and despair, too

Israel has intensified its aerial raids on the Gaza Strip three days after Hamas launched its terrorist attacks. Hamas, which controls Gaza, is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US and other nations. On Monday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "what we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations."

Around 800 buildings have been fully destroyed and 5,000 heavily damaged by Israeli attacks, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Some 400,000 people are reportedly without access to water.

Rescue workers search for survivors after Israeli airstrikes hit Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. So far, a total of 830 people have been killed and more than 4,200 injured after airstrikes on the Hamas-controlled territory, according to local authorities. Hamas' Saturday attack on Israel left over 900 people dead and more than 2,600 injured.

A woman wails as dead bodies are loaded onto a truck after an Israeli airstrike. According to the Gaza Health Authority, more than 140 children and over 100 women have been killed in Gaza.

Palestinians flee Israeli retaliatory air strikes in an old minibus. According to the UN, more than 187,000 people in Gaza have been displaced, 137,000 people have taken shelter in UN schools and 40,000 in private homes. Leaving the Gaza Strip itself is impossible as Israel has sealed off the territory and the Egyptian crossing is closed.

Israeli troops are seen patrolling the Israel-Gaza border. Hamas fighters breached border fortifications in a number of locations during the night of October 7 before committing acts of terror on Israeli territory. Israel built the Gaza border fence in 1994. Gaza’s border with Egypt is also sealed off by a long fence.

After Israel mobilized some 300,000 reservists, many Gaza residents fear an Israeli ground offensive may be looming. Military vehicles and equipment have been massed along the Gaza border. Israeli towns bordering Gaza have been almost completely evacuated.

Speaking to CNN, Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned of a looming humanitarian disaster in Gaza. "It's going to amount to war crimes if children are going to starve and die in hospitals because of lack of electricity, for example," he said.

Yahya Sinwar has been the leader of the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza since 2017. He is considered one of the plotters of the October 7 terror attacks on Israel. Sinwar, who grew up in a Gaza refugee camp, is quoted as having said, "we would rather die as martyrs than die out of oppression and humiliation."

A Hamas spokesman told news agencies that every time Israel bombs Gaza civilians without prior warning, an Israeli hostage will be killed. Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned that such acts will not be forgiven.