Nayrouz Qarmout, a Palestinian author who lives in the Gaza Strip, recalled that during past wars with Israel, Gazans would feel extreme pangs of fear when they heard explosions, but afterward hope would return. Hope of cease-fires, and of life going on.

But this war is different.

Gaza residents say the bombs come mostly without warning and hit indiscriminately, leading to widespread hopelessness and the feeling that imminent death is inevitable.

“You can’t imagine the feeling,” she said. “You are not safe. All places are targets, so you think of dying at any time.”

Israeli airstrikes have pounded the enclave for three weeks in response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that rules Gaza, in which more than 1,400 people were killed, Israeli authorities say.