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Hospitals say more than 430 people have been killed across Gaza. Nearly 700 have been wounded since Israel shattered a temporary ceasefire in a blitz of airstrikes that began before dawn Tuesday. Israeli leaders say this is only the beginning of a new offensive. NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza City and Aya Batrawy in Dubai bring us their reporting on what it's been like in Gaza since the war resumed. And a warning - you will hear graphic descriptions of the war, including the sound of explosions.
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AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: It's the middle of the night in Gaza, the ninth week of a ceasefire many hoped would last. Instead, people were jolted awake to the familiar, terrifying sound of Israeli airstrikes. NPR producer Anas Baba in Gaza was one of them.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: I don't know what's happening, but it seems that war is back.
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BABA: I don't know exactly what is the targets. It seems to be close.
BATRAWY: The targets, Israel says, were mid-level and senior Hamas officials. Five of them were killed, Hamas said. To reach them, Israeli warplanes struck tents, homes and shelters, killing hundreds of people, more than 60% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Around 180 of those killed were children.
TANYA HAJ-HASSAN: There's so many pediatric trauma cases that all the PICU, pediatric ICU, beds are full now.
BATRAWY: Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan is an American pediatric intensive care physician volunteering in Gaza's Nasser Hospital with the organization Medical Aid for Palestinians. She describes in voice memos losing patients in the ER and the many more taken straight to the morgue.
HAJ-HASSAN: The ER was just chaos - patients everywhere, on the floor. I mean, there were probably three men, and the rest were all children, women, elderly. It was everybody caught in their sleep, still wrapped in their blankets.
BATRAWY: She describes a 6-year-old girl on one of the beds, partially paralyzed with the word majhul (ph), or unknown, written in black ink on her arm, and the infant she treated, just a few months old with her pierced ears.
HAJ-HASSAN: She looked perfect on the outside but was pale as a sheet. She ended up having pretty significant internal bleeding, including some shrapnel penetrating her chest wall and probably has a head injury. I'm told her mom was killed.
BATRAWY: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the offensive was launched to complete the war's aims of freeing Israeli hostages held in Gaza and destroying Hamas, the group that attacked Israel in 2023.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
BATRAWY: Protests like this one in Israel are demanding he return to negotiations, saying the war endangers hostages. Israel's blocked food, medical supplies and even fuel from entering Gaza for nearly three weeks. Hamas says Israel's far-right government is now finding excuses to return to war. Defense Minister Israel Katz says Hamas must understand the rules of the game have changed, and he had this message for the residents of Gaza.
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ISRAEL KATZ: (Through interpreter) What comes next will be much harsher, and you will bear the full consequences. Soon, the evacuation of the population from combat zones will resume. If all Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not removed from Gaza, Israel will act with force beyond anything you've ever seen.
BATRAWY: The White House says it was consulted by the Israelis on its attacks. Sixty-year-old Ismail Zaroub says his daughter's home was among those destroyed in the latest airstrikes.
ISMAIL ZAROUB: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: He says, "to pressure Hamas, they killed 400 people. Why? With what right?" He says, "where's Trump, who's called for peace? Where's the world? There's no humanity," he says.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Crying).
BATRAWY: A woman stands in the street with her three distraught grandchildren after an airstrike damaged their building. She describes what so many in Gaza have already endured.
UMM SEIF AL-GHURRA: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: Umm Seif al-Ghurra says her son was already killed at the start of this war with his wife and kids, and her home was bombed in earlier airstrikes, and now this one is, too, destroyed.
AL-GHURRA: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: She says, "this is a calamity. We can't take it anymore." Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai, with Anas Baba in Gaza.
(SOUNDBITE OF 4 FARGO SONG, "GET HER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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