In a hospital ward full of patients, 6-year-old Palestinian Ghada Dabebech recalled in tears how she was playing on a swing in a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City when she was severely injured by an Israeli strike on Thursday (April 3).
The injury led to the amputation of her right arm, her father Ahmed Dabebech added, hoping for the border crossing to reopen soon and allow his daughter to receive medical treatment and a prosthetic limb abroad.
Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces killed at least 27 people, including women and children, in the airstrike on Dar Al-Arqam school building where displaced families were sheltering.
The Israeli military said the Dar Al-Arqam school building in Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City had been used a command and control centre by Hamas militants and accused the fighters of deliberately using civilian infrastructure as bases. Hamas denies that it operates among civilians.
Israel expands ground offensive in Gaza City
Red Crescent shares video of fatal attack on Gaza aid workers
Israel resumed its operation in Gaza with a heavy series of air strikes on March 18 and sent troops back in after a two-month pause during which 38 hostages were returned in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Efforts at restarting negotiations, brokered by Egypt and Qatar, have stalled.
More than 280,000 people have been displaced in Gaza over two weeks, the United Nations Humanitarian Agency OCHA said last week, adding to the misery of families that have already been displaced multiple times over the past 18 months.
Israel accuses Hamas of hiding fighters in civilian buildings and says it takes precaution to limit casualties but hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the operation resumed, according to local health authorities. More than 250 of the dead were armed militants, the military says.
The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel has reduced much of Gaza to ruins and killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health authorities.
(Production: Dawood Abu Elkass, Bassam Masoud, Fadi Shana, Kinda Makieh)