Horror returns to Gaza: "It took us days to recover all the pieces of his body."

BarcelonaLast Thursday, an Israeli bombardment hit the Abu Daqa family home in southern Gaza. The attack occurred at dawn, and when neighbors and rescue teams arrived, they rushed with shovels, sticks, and their bare hands to search for survivors among the rubble. Through a perforated wall, they found lifeless, dusty bodies still on the mattress. The father, mother, and seven siblings—Omar, Osama, Qusay, Mohamed, Batoul, Hala, and Ahmad—were crushed in the destroyed house. Their bodies and those of seven other members of the same family were taken to the European Hospital. Only the grandparents and little Ayla, a one-month-old girl, miraculously unharmed, survived. "It was a tough night," Mahmoud Awad, a neighbor helping the rescue teams, told ARA. Since resumed large-scale bombingAfter two months of a truce it never honored, the Israeli army has killed at least 634 Palestinians and left 1,172 wounded in the Strip.

"The murder of civilians does not stop, the Israeli army continues to massacre us and is implementing the mass expulsion plan that Trump wants... The whole world is watching and the world doesn't care," Ahmed al-Shufi, mayor of Rafah, explains to ARA. He also points out that with the health system destroyed and without supplies, the chances of survival for the wounded are very low. "Ninety percent of the deceased are children, grandparents, and women: it has always been a war against civilians," the mayor recalls.

Amal Khaled, a kindergarten teacher living in Beit Lahia, in the central Gaza Strip, explains to ARA via WhatsApp how her brother Imad was killed: "A missile was launched when he went to visit a friend; it took us days to recover all the pieces." He leaves behind five sons and two young daughters who suffer from a heart condition. On Friday, the Israeli army bombed the only remaining cancer hospital in the Gaza Strip, and the rest are operating at a minimum because Tel Aviv ordered the cutting off of all supplies of medicine, medical equipment, food, and electricity three weeks ago.

The resumption of the war in Gaza highlights Netanyahu's autocratic drift.

Another terrifying witness is the one posted on Instagram by Mohamed El Balawui, about his friend Noor, who lost around thirty family members in an Israeli bombardment on Wednesday. "I went to offer my condolences and saw exhaustion, grief, and lack of sleep on his face. He could barely stand: he had been working nonstop for days to recover the bodies of his father, mother, and siblings from the rubble, without any equipment. It was enough to extract them. It broke your heart."

In addition to the bombing, Israeli troops reoccupied positions they had abandoned since the truce that came into effect on January 19: the Netzarim corridor, which cuts the Strip from east to west and divides it in two parts, and also in the south, in Rafah.

Large-scale invasion

According to the Israeli newspaper HaaretzThis week's bombings and ground incursions could be the first steps in the plan of the new chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, who plans to mobilize several divisions for a large-scale invasion. Zamir has assured the government that he believes he could achieve the objectives declared since October 7, 2023, which Israel has failed to achieve in 15 months of raiding Gaza: the total destruction of Hamas's military and governance capabilities.

That is why the movement of relatives of the Israeli hostages has taken to the streets, denouncing that this is a death sentence for the hostages, in protests that have been suppressed by the police. "The goal is to use Zamir's campaign to establish military authority in Gaza—or at least in parts of the Strip—and transfer control of the distribution of humanitarian aid to the Israeli army," the newspaper reports. The previous commander-in-chief, Herzi Halevi, dismissed on March 5, had strongly opposed this idea, arguing that it was too risky for the soldiers. "Everything indicates that Israel is creating a smokescreen to hide the real intentions of the government and the military: while everyone awaits developments in the negotiation process, which are uncertain, a large-scale operation is being prepared to occupy Gaza and restore full Israeli control." It is unclear what has changed militarily to enable Israel to now achieve the goal it set for itself following the Palestinian attacks of October 7, 2023.

With his far-right partners back in the governing coalition—Interior Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had left the government when the truce with Hamas went into effect and has rejoined it now that Israel has broken it—Netanyahu will have no trouble passing next week's budget vote. It also continues to accelerate the military offensive in the West Bank..

The ultra-right is openly pushing for the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza (in 2005, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismantled them because defending them was too costly for Israel) and the forced expulsion of Palestinians under military administration. Netanyahu will have to manage all of this, despite the opposition of the families of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza and the crisis over the Supreme Court's refusal to accept the dismissal of the head of the internal security services, Ronen Bar, whom Netanyahu wants to use as a scapegoat.