ALJAZEERA: Gaza death toll from 19 days of’
Israeli offensive tops 1 , 000 according’
“to Gaza health ministry .
Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip – The bodies:
of dozens of Palestinians were pulled
from the ruins of bombed -out homes
in Gaza on Saturday during a brief
humanitarian truce that top diplomats
‘meeting in Paris urged Israel and
Palestinian faction Hamas to extend .
The death toll from the 19 – day Israeli
offensive on Gaza reached 1 , 000 on
Saturday , according to Gaza health
ministry .
More than halfway into the 12 – hour
ceasefire , medics said 85 bodies had
been retrieved from buildings ground
into rubble across the Gaza Strip .
Thirty- seven Israeli soldiers have
also been killed, along with two
Israeli civilians and a Thai foreign
worker .
Palestinians ventured onto Gaza ‘s
streets after the truce took effect ,
some eager to check on homes they
had fled, others to stock up on food
and other items while it was still safe
to do so .
In many places they found
astonishing devastation : apartment
buildings levelled , entire blocks of
homes completely wiped out by
relentless Israeli bombardment .
For Sareya al-Massri , the truce
provided a rare window to return
home to collect clothes for her 10
children . ” Nothing is left . We lost
everything , ” said al- Massri , wiping
away tears with a white tissue as she
surveyed what was once her three –
storey home in Beit Hanoun in
northern Gaza .
Al- Massri fled her home last week
under intense Israeli shelling . She is
now living at Gaza City’s Beach
refugee camp with her husband ,
children and grandchildren . The
family’ s house sits in ruins after it
was hit by an Israeli F -16
missile . ” My husband doesn’ t yet
know … I don ‘ t know how I’m going to
tell him, ” she said.
RELATED : Bodies recovered from
Gaza rubble amid truce
Across Beit Hanoun, debris blocked
the streets , while piles of rubbish and
rotten vegetables spread out over the
market square . Two dead horses
were lying on the sidewalk .
” My home ! My home !” yelled Iftekhar
Abu Ouda , 46 , as she ran down an
alley to inspect her home . She burst
into tears after seeing that two Israeli
shells had hit the roof and back
exterior wall . ” I have been working for
23 years and my husband as well to
build this home , ” she said. ” This is
not a life . What did we do to Israel in
order to destroy our home ?”
Most of the town ‘s 40 , 000 residents
fled on Wednesday , when Israeli
artillery shelling intensified and
reached the centre of the city. An
Israeli air strike hit a United Nations –
run school , killing at least 16
displaced Palestinians and injuring
150 others.
” When we were gathering , a shell
landed in the playground … another
shell followed . We ran out , but a third
shell hit the street as if they want to
keep us inside , ” said Ra ‘isa Abu
Harbeed , 33 , who witnessed the
bombing .
Harbeed returned to the school when
the temporary ceasefire took effect to
collect some of her family’s
belongings, before returning to
another shelter in Jabaliya, a refugee
camp in the northern Gaza Strip . ” My
husband was injured , my brother – in –
law lost his leg … there were many
dead and I saw a baby among them , ”
she said, as she collected clothes .
The hallways between classrooms
were littered with blood stained mats,
food and clothes . Pieces of heavy
shrapnel lay outside, while a
playground was marked by a black
crater , where a shell landed .
At the entrance to the city, civil
defence workers were digging
through the rubble of a building. The
first recovered body – a young man
named Tamer Nasser – was found
and rushed onto a stretcher to the
ambulance. The second body
followed a few minutes later.
A resident said these were the sixth
and seventh bodies to be recovered
from the house since the morning .
” The home was bombed in the
morning before the ceasefire , ” said
Ahmed Shabat , a neighbour , as he
watched the scene . ” Most of the
damage here is fresh , as if they
wanted to cause as much destruction
as possible before the ceasefire . ”
RELATED : Hamas leader : ‘ Israelis are
playing games ‘
US Secretary of State John Kerry ,
meanwhile , met with counterparts
from Europe and the Middle East in
Paris , who urged that the ceasefire be
extended .
” We all call on parties to extend the
humanitarian ceasefire , ” France ‘s
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told
reporters after meeting Kerry and
counterparts from Britain , Germany ,
Italy, Qatar and Turkey , as well as an
EU representative.
Hamas and Israel agreed to the
” humanitarian window ” in the early
hours of Saturday morning, after a US
proposal for a seven – day truce during
which the two sides would negotiate
a longer -term deal was rejected by
Israel ‘ s security cabinet on Friday
night .
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Hamas leader
Osama Hamdan said that any long –
term ceasefire ” has to result in lifting
the siege on Gaza, opening the
border crossings , and [ for
Palestinians in Gaza ] to have free
access to the world” .”