Until three weeks ago, Marwa al-Nagar used to wake up to the refreshing smell of the rose and clove flowers that grow in the fields of the town of Khuza'a in the Gaza Strip's Khan Younis city.
Now, al-Nagar says the smell of flowers has been replaced by the "smell of death," as a devastating Israeli offensive on Gaza left her and her five children stuck in Khuza'a, which has been targeted by Israeli forces for the past 24 hours.
"They're committing massacres," al-Nagar, 45, said, struggling to find words while holding back her tears.
Since dawn Wednesday, Israel has launched a deadly ground assault, backed by warplanes, on Khuza'a. The unrelenting attacks come as part of a massive offensive launched on July 7 against the blockaded coastal enclave.
"They besieged the town and randomly shelled residential areas and agricultural land," al-Nagar said. "Some families managed to escape, but many others – like mine – couldn't."
Al-Nagar eventually broke down in tears at the thought of her and her children ending up as "mere statistics in Gaza's never-ending death toll," amid Israel's third major onslaught on the embattled coastal enclave in six years.
At least 30 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Khuza'a since Israeli forces raided the town at dawn Wednesday, according to Ashraf al-Qodra, spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Khan Younis, a key commercial hub in the Gaza Strip and the territory's second largest urban area after Gaza City, has been among the main targets of Israeli ground operations that began one week ago.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that Israel was pounding uninhabited land around Khuza'a – which lies near Israel's border – with artillery.
Israeli tanks, backed by warplanes, targeted all the roads leading to the town, effectively cutting it off from neighboring villages, before pummeling it with airstrikes and artillery barrages.
Eyewitnesses also said Israeli forces had commandeered several local homes for use as watchtowers and sniper nests after detaining the residents.
"My relatives and neighbors are all under rubble now," Khuza'a resident Anwar Abu Reida – his sobs drowned out by the sound of intense artillery fire – told AA by phone.
"Where is the free world? Where is humanity? I could die at any second," he added.
Abu Reida, 45, went on to say that Israeli forces had detained dozens of young local residents and taken them to unknown locations.
Then the phone went dead.
-'Anything that moves'-
One week ago, Israel stepped up its "Operation Protective Edge," sending thousands of ground troops into the embattled Palestinian enclave.
Fierce clashes between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli ground troops left at least 32 of the latter dead – the highest Israeli military death toll since Israel's defeat at the hands of Lebanese militant faction Hezbollah in 2006.
On Sunday, around 74 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 injured when Israel shelled eastern Gaza City's Shujaya neighborhood. The move followed fierce ground battles between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli troops, which ultimately forced the latter to retreat.
The Health Ministry's al-Qodra, meanwhile, warned that the ongoing attack on Khuza'a could lead to a similar bloodbath.
"Our medical crew still can't extricate all the bodies or reach all the injured since access to the affected area remains blocked," al-Qodra said.
Saad Qaddih, a 38-year-old local resident who managed to flee the besieged town, described the situation as "catastrophic."
"Israeli snipers who have deployed on rooftops are shooting anything that moves," Qaddih, who is currently receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained during a recent artillery barrage, told AA.
"It was only possible to escape during the first few hours of the shelling," Qaddih said. "It was a genuine massacre. Israeli warplanes reduced dozens of homes to rubble with their residents still inside."
"Women and children were ripped to pieces before my eyes," he added.
According to a Palestinian paramedic from Khuza'a, Israeli gunfire forced ambulances – which had entered the town to tend to the victims – to retreat.
"The entire town was engulfed in flames," he said. "Agricultural land has been set on fire; entire families remain besieged in their homes."
"We're receiving constant emergency calls from town residents, while we remain here helplessly, unable to enter the area due to fire by Israeli troops," the paramedic added.
The raid on Khuza'a – which remains ongoing – has left the town's roughly 12,000 residents stranded, according to Palestinian rights campaigner Yasser Abdel-Ghafour.
"They're homeless, displaced or trapped under the rubble with no hope of rescue," Abdel-Ghafour, who also works as a researcher for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, an NGO, said.
"We're facing another massacre, like Shujaya," he added. "Israeli forces targeted a clinic in Khuza'a, killing dozens of people being treated for injuries sustained earlier."
The Palestinian death toll from Israel's devastating onslaught on the embattled Gaza Strip rose to 771 on Thursday, according to Gaza health officials.
The fatalities, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, include 180 children, 92 women and 45 elderly people.
Over 4590 Palestinians have also been injured, many critically, in ongoing Israeli attacks, the ministry said.
According to official Israeli figures, 34 Israelis – including 32 soldiers and two civilians – have been killed since hostilities began more than two weeks ago.
Israel's "Operation Protective Edge" is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populated strip, which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, within the last six years.
In 2008/9, over 1500 Gazans were killed – the vast majority of them civilians – during Israel's three-week-long "Operation Cast Lead."
By Ola Attalah
englishnews@aa.com.tr
