The family and neighbors used ropes to clear chunks of concrete, working alongside ill-equipped rescue teams.
By nightfall, the family s death toll stood at 22.
Eight bodies were dug out of Azzam s building and 14 from the one next door.
The dead included 89-year-old family patriarch Amin, his son Fawaz, 62, his grandson Sameh, 28, and his great-grandson, 6-month-old Qusai.
Just a day earlier, Qusai s parents had celebrated a small milestone, his first tooth.
Azzam s two younger brothers were killed.
Three nieces, 5-year-old Rula, 10-year-old Yara and 12-year-old Hala, were found in a tight embrace, their bodies the last to be pulled out, said Azzam s surviving older brother, Awni.
Gaza’s civilians fear justice will never come
2 hours ago A Palestinian youth pets a cat in a building heavily damaged during recent Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip. Agence France-Presse
Karin Laub and Fares Akram,
Associated Press
The Al Kawlaks, a family of four generations living next door to each other in downtown Gaza City, were utterly unprepared for the inferno.
Like others, they were terrified by the heavy bombing in Israel’s fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers that began May 10. The explosions felt more powerful than in previous fighting. At night, parents and children slept in one room so they would live or die together.
Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and its harsh blockade of Gaza have undermined its constitutional ideals and worsened internal fault lines that threaten its future.