Gaza's civilians fear justice will never come

In all, 254 people were killed in Gaza in this war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Eleven civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier

- Karin Laub and Fares Akram

GAZA CITY

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.

Yet the relatively well-to-do Rimal neighbourhood where the family lived in a cluster of apartment buildings seemed somewhat safer than areas along Gaza’s border with Israel, which had been devastated in this and past fighting.

Then one-night disaster struck. Azzam Al Kawlak’s four children had gone to bed, and he and his wife were preparing to join them.

At around 1am on May 16, a thunderous boom shook his top-floor apartment, followed quickly by a second and third. “The floor cracked below our feet and the furniture was thrown to the wall,” the 42-year-old engineer said.

The four-story building collapsed, with Azzam’s apartment dropping to the ground. The family escaped through the kitchen balcony, now almost ground level. Bizarrely, the laundry hanging on a clothesline seemed untouched.

It took a day for the full horror to emerge, as bodies and survivors were pulled from the rubble. The family and neighbours 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.