- Title: Desperate Gazans flee Israeli bombardment
- Date: 14th May 2021
- Summary: AMBULANCE DRIVING AWAY
- Embargoed: 28th May 2021 15:14
- Keywords: Gaza. army Israel Palestinians families
- Location: BEIT HANOUN, NORTHERN GAZA AND RAFAH, GAZA
- City: BEIT HANOUN, NORTHERN GAZA AND RAFAH, GAZA
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA005ECXOOQV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF DEAD CHILD IN SHOTS 16 AND 17
After devastating air strikes pulverised their home, families in Beit Hanoun searched for personal belongings among the rubble, watching on as a bulldozer started to work on clearing piles of debris where their homes once stood.
After days of heavy Israeli airstrikes, and then intensifying artillery fire, families in the coastal enclave that is home to 2 million people and largely shut off from the outside world in a blockade led by Israel, were also burying their dead.
In Rafah, Palestinians attended the funeral of a child killed during the bombings, some tearing up and shouting out in anger before the burial.
Israel has launched two ground assaults on Gaza in just over a decade, in 2009 and 2014, part of a long-running standoff with Hamas, the Islamist group that has run Gaza since 2007 and whose militants have been firing rockets into Israel.
The Israeli military said on Friday that strikes were launched against Hamas and other militant targets in Gaza and it would continue to use force "if needed".
Israel, the United States and European nations deem Hamas a terrorist group. Hamas says it has a right to protest against the occupation of Palestinian land and seeks an independent nation.
Neither side has shown any sign of easing up in the conflict that erupted on Monday, and Israeli forces have massed on the border.
(Mohammed Salem, Bassam Masoud, Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh, Mohammed Shana, Charlotte Bruneau) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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