“The relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the level of civilian casualties, and the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods continue to mount and are deeply alarming,” Mr. Guterres said. “Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south,” he added. “And then continuing to bomb the south itself.”
William Schomburg, the head of the International Commission of the Red Cross mission in Gaza, said that of all the many conflicts that Gazans have lived through, the current situation is “exponentially more difficult.”
Gazan friends and colleagues have told him that the sense of hopelessness, fear and uncertainty felt now was unparalleled.
“When this conflict ends,” he said, “those invisible wounds, those scars, the trauma that will come from this, that impacts young and old alike will tragically be felt for a very long time.”
Ms. Qarmout, the writer, said she believed Israel’s airstrikes were meant to inflict pain and take revenge on Palestinians. The smell of death hangs throughout many neighborhoods, with so many bodies under the rubble unable to be recovered. That smell itself, she said, “creates this feeling of bereavement.”
She cited a belief among some in war zones that people don’t hear the rocket that kills them. “You just explode,” she said.
“Perhaps despite all the cruelty, this is a mercy.”
Ameera Harouda contributed reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza.
