In a deepening escalation of its assault on Gaza, Israeli forces have adopted what many Palestinians describe as a scorched-earth strategy, targeting homes, displacement camps, and vital infrastructure with unprecedented force. Entire families have been wiped out in strikes on residential areas, with no advance warning, in what human rights groups and local officials say amounts to systematic genocide.

Airstrikes have flattened neighbourhoods in seconds, using missiles capable of levelling entire housing blocks. Fire belts, once used to encircle combat zones, are now deployed in urban areas, killing civilians indiscriminately. The dead include hundreds of women and children, with bodies still trapped beneath the rubble in areas that remain inaccessible to emergency teams.

Hospitals have not been spared. The Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza has been encircled and repeatedly shelled, cutting it off from all medical supplies, staff, and patients in need. Al-Awda Hospital has faced drone fire and direct targeting, rendering it non-operational. Health workers are performing emergency surgeries in school buildings and shelters, with few supplies, no fuel, and no safe corridors.

Palestinian officials say this campaign reflects a deliberate policy aimed at emptying Gaza through mass killings and the destruction of the region’s social and medical infrastructure. More than 80 families have been completely erased in recent weeks, with over 950 people killed and thousands more wounded or missing.

Despite the scale of devastation, aid workers continue to operate in what they describe as a humanitarian vacuum. Burials now take place in mass graves and public parks, while the wounded are transported on carts or by hand. Yet, in the face of international silence and unrelenting fire, the people of Gaza endure.