RAFAH: Eight sleeping children killed in one strike, doctors fighting but failing to save an unborn child — such were the stories recounted by Gaza medics as Zionists continued their air strikes on the besieged enclave. According to the health ministry in Gaza, children made up more than 2,704 of the 6,546 killed by the Zionist occupation’s relentless bombing of Gaza following Hamas’ attack on October 7.

Grief-stricken parents carrying the bodies of children in white shrouds through Gaza streets have become a familiar sight since the war started. Eight children aged between two and five were among 10 people from the same family killed in an air strike on a house in the city of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, last Wednesday, relatives said. “The children were asleep when they destroyed the house,” their 67-year-old grandfather, Abu Mohammad Wafi al-Bakri, said.

Diyala, Ayman, Hamada, Zaher, Uday, Jamal, Nabil and Acil all came from one extended family and all slept on the ground floor. It took an hour after the raid to find their bodies, rescuers said. “None of my children were linked to Palestinian organizations and no men were in the house at the time,” said Jihad al-Bakri, father of three of the children. He had left his home an hour before the missile hit to try to find water.

ID bracelets

Families in Gaza are now wearing ID bracelets so they can identify loved ones in case they die. The ID bracelets are also helpful as mass graves are becoming more common in the enclave, due to the high death count. Ali El-Daba, 40, told Reuters that he had seen bodies ripped apart by the bombing and were unrecognizable.

He said he decided to divide his family to prevent them from all dying in a single strike. His wife Lina, 42, kept two of their sons and two daughters in Gaza City in the north and he moved to Khan Younis in the south with three other children, he added.

El-Daba said he was preparing for the worst. He bought blue string bracelets for his family members and tied them around both wrists. “If something happens,” he said, “this way I will recognize them.” Other Palestinian families were also buying or making bracelets for their children or writing their names on their arms.

No safe place

Gazans continue to suffer due to the full siege imposed by the Zionists since October 9, with the risk of starvation and dehydration running high. Aid efforts have also been hindered by the occupation’s bombing of the Rafah crossing. People in Gaza have not had access to fuel, electricity, food or water for over two weeks. Journalists on the ground say that families queue up for up to ten hours to get bread, and often there isn’t any left. “There’s no bread ... we have two loaves of bread for the family, the bread is stale, a family of ten people receives only two loaves ... and one bottle of water,” she says in a video posted on the Middle East Eye’s account on social platform X.

There’s no safe place to hide in Gaza, with the Zionist occupation bombing schools known to shelter those who have been displaced from their homes. On Wednesday evening, a school in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah run by the United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has “sustained severe collateral damage due to a close strike,” the organization said. The school was sheltering 4,600 forcibly displaced people, it said. One person was killed and 44 others wounded, including nine children.

Palestine’s Ministry of Health says that 65 percent of those killed in Gaza this week died in the south of the enclave, which the Zionist occupation has said is safe. Last week, the occupation ordered at least 1.1 million residents in north Gaza to leave their homes and head towards the south, with no guarantee of return. Now, survivors of the ongoing bombings have found themselves targeted in the south.

Unicef, the UN children’s rights agency, called the situation in Gaza “a growing stain on our collective conscience”. Unicef Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr said that the death rate was “staggering,” and that “even more frightening is the fact that unless tensions are eased, and unless humanitarian aid is allowed, including food, water, medical supplies and fuel, the daily death toll will continue to rise”. — Agencies