Israeli warplanes unleashed another devastating wave of airstrikes on Gaza at dawn on Friday, striking densely populated neighbourhoods in the north, including Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp. The attacks left dozens of Palestinians dead, injured, or missing, with emergency responders overwhelmed and unable to reach many of the victims.

In Jabalia, rescue workers arrived to find entire homes flattened, with no bodies visible—only the chilling silence of lives buried beneath the ruins. With ambulances targeted and roads destroyed, Civil Defence teams were forced to transport the dead using fire trucks. Local journalists say the Israeli military deliberately bombed civilian homes, with entire families trapped inside.

The scale of the destruction echoes Thursday’s massacre, when over 130 Palestinians were killed across the besieged Strip. Gaza’s death toll has now soared past 52,000 since October, with nearly 120,000 more injured. Yet the numbers cannot capture the pain of families combing through rubble for loved ones, or the children who wake each morning to the sound of drones instead of birdsong.

International organisations continue to warn of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, but the world remains paralysed. In Gaza, grief is not a moment—it is the rhythm of daily life.