As drones buzzed overhead in the morning sun, Palestinians gently lifted from the rubble a blanket holding a body, the latest casualty of Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza City.

The devastating scene is a familiar one in the Gaza Strip’s main urban hub, where Israel has carried out intensifying strikes in the runup to the ground assault it launched on Tuesday.

Overnight bombing reduced a residential block in the north of the city to mounds of rubble. One man squeezed his head and hand beneath a concrete slab in a desperate search for survivors.

“There were about 50 people inside, including women and children. I don’t know why they bombed it,” said Abu Abd Zaqout, adding that it had housed his uncle’s family.

“Why kill children sleeping safely like that, turning them into body par

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