Watch the video: “This is not war, this is genocide”: Israel retaliates and smashes buildings in Gaza City.
STORY: These residents of Khan Yunes in the Gaza Strip search for buried people with their bare hands. On Saturday, an airstrike by the Israeli army destroyed the residential building. Mohammad Sadek / Chan Yunes resident “This is not a war, this is a genocide. It is an attempt to drive people out of the Gaza Strip, but it won’t work,” said this Chan Yunes resident, whose home is now in ruins . Fearing military retaliation from Israel after Hamas’s bloody major attack on Israeli territory, tens of thousands of people recently fled to the south of the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean. Israel had previously called on the civilian population to do so and issued a 24-hour ultimatum. After the deadline had passed, the Israeli military announced on Saturday morning that its troops were getting into position for the next phase of operations. “They are all around the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the center and in the north.” The soldiers are ready for anything, said a military spokesman. The spokesman did not discuss a possible ground offensive. The aim of the war is to destroy the radical Islamic Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and its military capabilities. The United Nations estimates the number of people who left their homes and apartments in fear for their lives at 400,000. A total of around 2.3 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, more than a million of them in Gaza City.