Israeli forces bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza overnight and into Thursday, killing dozens of people in an air and ground offensive against Hamas that has widened to most of the territory and forced thousands more to flee from homes and shelters.
Some of the captives are coming home. But there’s little relief in this temporary pause to the fighting. “It’s happiness wrapped in sadness,” one newly-freed woman tells Rolling Stone
The bombardment, described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the war, knocked out most communications in the territory and largely cut off the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people from the world.
Hundreds of Palestinian journalists have had to flee south from Gaza City and work in fear for their lives in appalling conditions as Israeli air raids pound the territory.Media representatives in the Palestinian territory, including AFP, used to work from offices in Gaza City.