Area in Gaza where Israel told displaced Palestinians to seek shelter becomes battle zone

Geoff Bennett:

Israel's campaign in Gaza continues tonight with deadly effect, as diplomats work to secure another deal to pause fighting to release hostages held by Hamas in return for Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody.

Meantime, an attempt at the United Nations to secure even a vote in the Security Council on a cease-fire was delayed at least one more day.

William Brangham reports.

William Brangham:

Rafah, the very area where Israel told displaced Palestinians to seek shelter, has become a battle zone.

Mohammed Abu Zurub, Gaza City Resident (through interpreter):

We have never seen such weapons. I witnessed the 1956 war, and there was not anything like this. I witnessed the 1967 war, and there was not something like this. This is a barbarian act. Israel is the biggest criminal.

William Brangham:

Excavators comb through the rubble of what was once a home. It was flattened by Israeli airstrikes overnight. Some two dozen people died, including a newborn baby and her 2-year-old brother. Their injured father, in a hospital bed, grieves his dead children.

Mohammed Zoughroub, Gaza City Resident (through interpreter):

We were sleeping. We were buried while sleeping.

William Brangham:

Relatives preparing to bury the dead prayed over their shrouded bodies.

Sarah Kraeem lost her sister in the strike.

Sarah Kraeem, Gaza City Resident (through interpreter):

My feeling is indescribable. Imagine that, yesterday, I was combing her hair and making her a sandwich for dinner, then tucking her into sleep. We woke up in the morning, and there is no Fatima. Fatima is gone.

William Brangham:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have packed into Rafah to escape the intense bombing farther north. But Southern Gaza has repeatedly come under attack in recent days. Israel insists it's going after just militant targets.

In Central Gaza, scenes of chaos after a bombing at Nuseirat refugee camp. Locals rushed to help the wounded, as health workers carried the dead away in body bags, a boy, barefoot and bewildered, pulled from the rubble and carried away.

Abo Ayman Abo El-Ghoss, Gaza City Resident (through interpreter):

I was in my store, and the kids around me were playing. People were coming and going, and they were having a good time. And then this aggressive bombing came. I don't know what they think we have in our houses for us to deserve all this bombing. This is enough. Enough of the bombing of children and women and displacing people from their homes.

William Brangham:

Fierce battles also raged for another day in the north. Israeli forces raided Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City overnight, one of the last functioning hospitals in Northern Gaza. They detained most of the hospitals staff, leaving only two doctors and four nurses to tend to over a hundred seriously injured patients, all without water and electricity.

In Geneva, World Health Organization officials denounced recent Israeli strikes on hospitals.

Dr. Margaret Harris, World Health Organization:

The people in the hospitals, yes, they need everything. They need medical supplies, but what they ask for first is food and water, the very basics. They do not have them.

One of my colleagues described people lying on the floor in severe pain, in agony, but they weren't asking for pain relief. They were asking for water. But it's beyond belief that the world is allowing this to continue.

William Brangham:

Meanwhile, scores of hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he hopes more will be released soon.

Isaac Herzog, Israeli President:

Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages. And the responsibility lies fully with Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas.

William Brangham:

But Hamas has insisted it won't comply until there is a cease-fire. Meantime, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, known as the Al-Quds Brigades posted video on their Telegram account showing two Israeli hostages, seen here in a screenshot, pleading for their release.

All this comes as tensions are intensifying in the broader region. Yemen's Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have attacked a string of commercial ships in the Red Sea with missiles and drones. The strikes have prompted some of the world's largest shipping and oil companies to reroute to avoid the Suez Canal.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was in Qatar today, said the U.S. and it's allies have formed an international coalition to respond to the Houthi attacks.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.