At a funeral in Gaza on Dec 25 a line of Palestinians touched the white shrouds containing the bodies of at least 70 people who Palestinian health officials said were killed by an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in the centre of the besieged strip. The funeral followed one of the enclave's deadliest nights in the 11-week-old battle between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza. One man hugged a dead child, while others were hysterical.
One man, Ibrahim Youssef, said his wife and four children including a four-month-old baby, were trapped under the rubble after an airstrike hit the house where they were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp. Youssef said he was away when he heard the strike and hurried back home. Despite saving one of his sons, he had been unable to reach the others.Israel denies targeting civilians and accuses Hamas of building tunnels and military infrastructure in densely populated civilian areas. The strikes that began hours before midnight persisted into Dec 2