Trapped in hell: Palestinian civilians try to survive in northern Gaza, focus of Israel’s offensive

By ISABEL DEBRE, KAREEM CHEHAYEB and WAFAA SHURAFA
Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Weeks after ordering northern Gaza’s 1.1 million inhabitants to evacuate south, the Israeli army is intensifying its bombing of the area that stretches to the wetlands of Wadi Gaza, in the central strip. Israeli soldiers are also battling Hamas militants just north of Gaza City. It’s the start of what officials expect to be a long and bloody invasion that has already pinned down hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the north. Residents say they are trapped in hell. In the aftermath of one airstrike this week, a neonatal nurse spotted the bodies of her two young sons while dealing with the flood of dead and wounded arriving at her hospital.