In photos: Gaza under intense bombing
NewsOn Friday evening, as Israeli bombing intensified, Internet access was interrupted in the Palestinian enclave, suspending the flow of images for the first time since October 7.
The war between Israel and Hamas entered into its twenty-third day on Sunday, October 29. Since October 7 and the Islamist movement's terrorist attacks on Israeli soil, which have left over 1,400 people dead, the Israeli army has been relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2007 and is home to some 2.4 million Palestinians.
On Friday evening, Internet access in Gaza was interrupted, according to NetBlocks, an internet connectivity observatory. At the same time, shelling targeted the north of the enclave – in particular the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun – which also suspended picture coverage from Gaza for an evening, for the first time since the start of the conflict.
These images tell the story of what has happened in the Gaza Strip since the night of October 27.
Gaza's Civil Defense said that "hundreds of apartment buildings and houses were completely destroyed" by the Israeli strikes overnight. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), meanwhile, claimed to have struck "about 150 underground targets in the northern Gaza Strip." on the nights of Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28.
The Israeli army repeated its warning to Gazans: "This is an urgent warning to head south temporarily for your safety." IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari reiterated Israel's call for residents of the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City to head south.
At a UN-run aid center in Deir Al-Balah, a town midway between Gaza City and the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, food aid is being provided to locals as well as to people displaced following Israel's call to evacuate northern Gaza and move south.
"The war inside the Gaza Strip will be long and difficult – and we are ready for it," declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday, adding that his army "will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground," in reference to the gigantic network of tunnels from which, according to the IDF, Hamas directs its operations.
These massive strikes, which Israel claims are aimed at "destroying" Hamas, have resulted in a huge number of civilian casualties – over 8,000, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.