In the ravaged streets of Gaza City, survivors of the Yafa School massacre cling to fragments of life and memory. What should have been a shelter for displaced families became, at dawn on Wednesday, the site of yet another atrocity in a war that shows no sign of slowing. Ten lives were lost in that strike — many of them children — and countless others were left wounded, physically and beyond repair.

For those who made it out, survival is not a victory but a curse. “Those who died survived, and those who survived died,” whispered one survivor, barely able to speak through the pain. This is the new logic of Gaza — a place where the living envy the dead.

Ahmad Basel, whose body bears the scars of the attack, described a nightmare beyond imagination: “It felt like Judgment Day. The fire was everywhere. I lost three of my children. We pulled their bodies out, completely burned.” Around him, cries of grief echoed, mingled with the sound of drones and gunfire that have become part of daily life.

A woman sat quietly atop what remained of the school, eyes lost in the distance. “They were just children. They were running, despite their wounds. They wanted to live. That’s all we want — to live.” Her voice cracked as she spoke of a mother who made it to the hospital with her youngest, only to discover later that her other children had burned to death while sleeping.

Amid the horror, there is defiance. “We love life,” the woman said. “Even during Eid, people here tried to celebrate. Not because we are naive, but because we choose to resist despair.”

As Israeli forces continue their relentless campaign, now entering its second year, Gaza is being erased piece by piece. The attack on Yafa School is not an exception. It is part of a systematic effort to break a people who refuse to be broken — a people whose only demand is the right to exist.