It has been a week of unspeakable horror in Gaza.

This morning, the Israeli army carried out one of the worst massacres in Gaza yet, killing more than one hundred Palestinians, including children, and wounding hundreds others. Israeli forces bombarded a densely populated area in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, a tent region designated by Israel as “a humanitarian safe zone” for displaced Palestinians, where over eighty thousand people are taking shelter. Horrific scenes from al-Mawasi show dozens of bodies strewn on the ground in the wake of the massacre, many of them medical workers who were shot by Israeli soldiers as they rushed to help the wounded.

“The scenes that are coming from the area that was targeted are incredibly bloody and devastating,” Palestinian journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum told Al Jazeera.

Israel then carried out a second massacre, targeting a prayer in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza and killing more than twenty-five Palestinians. People’s remains lay scattered across the ravaged place. “They massacred us while praying,” one eyewitness related.

The massacres were carried out with US weapons. There are reports that Israel deployed the five-hundred-pound bombs it received form the United States this week. Citing the director of the military technology company Asgard, the Israeli daily Maariv reported that the missiles used in al-Mawasi were US-made JDAMs. Other sources claim that Israeli forces deployed US-made MK84 bombs weighing two thousand pounds in al-Mawasi. Citing Palestinian journalists in Gaza, Al-Jazeera reported that al-Mawasi was hit with “five bombs and five missiles.”

Al-Mawasi, a tiny strip that hosts thousands of displaced Palestinian families, has been the site of repeated Israeli massacres. Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, told Al Jazeera, “This area was attacked so many times; it’s full of shelters and these shelters contain thousands of tents where children, women, elders are staying under these tents as a place to be safe. So many families, displaced for the tenth time, seeking safety and security.” He added, “The message from Israel to the world [is] that again and again and again they are targeting Palestinian civilians wherever they are.”

"…It's a very tiny strip that right now hosts thousands of Palestinian families."

Israeli jets struck a Gaza 'safe zone' in Al Mawasi with five bombs and five missiles, where forcibly displaced Palestinians had sought refuge. Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum reports. pic.twitter.com/JkuDDQVawk

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 13, 2024

Saturday’s bloodbath is the culmination of a week of horrific massacres in Gaza City.

On Friday, after a week of intensive bombardment and ground assault, Israeli forces partly withdrew from Tal al-Hawa and al-Sinaa neighborhoods in Gaza City, leaving utter devastation in their wake. Gaza Civil Defense reports that Israeli forces massacred at least sixty Palestinians, most of them children and women. Many victims remain buried under the rubble.

Mahmoud Basal, the director of Civil Defense, told Associated Press reporters, “There are still missing people under the rubble of destroyed homes, which is difficult for our crews to reach. There are reports that many people are missing since the first day of the incursion. There are many calls for help but we just cannot reach them. We just do not have enough crews.”

Testimonies and horrific footage obtained by Al Jazeera reveal that Israeli soldiers executed elderly civilians inside their homes. Many were burned alive as Israeli forces set fire to entire homes with families inside, leaving dozens of charred bodies in their wake. Many victims were massacred as they tried to evacuate or flee to safety.

According to Civil Defense, many of those killed had left shelters in parts of the city that were under Israeli evacuation orders. Some bodies were found decomposing in the streets and alleys. Others were devoured by dogs. Fares Afaneh, an emergency official in northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that most of the bodies found in Tal al-Hawa were “decomposed due to the inability of ambulance crews to reach [them earlier].”

Hundreds of victims lay wounded with little chance of survival as Israeli forces remain stationed nearby, impeding rescue efforts and forcing residents to risk their lives while attempting to rescue wounded civilians. And while Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seemingly withdrew their tanks and armored vehicles from Tal al-Hawa, they have kept snipers stationed near buildings overlooking the streets, turning Gaza streets into death zones where they shoot anyone crossing. Israeli forces also destroyed the Sabha Medical Center near the district of Shuja’iyya, which provided care for over sixty thousand residents, while repaired hospitals across Gaza City, including the Patient’s Friends Hospital, have been destroyed again by Israel.

According to Gaza Civil Defense, “Entire families were killed. . . . Most of those killed are families, women, and children. Some bodies were eaten by dogs.”

This is a war against children. The Guardian reported that Israel is using weapons designed to maximize casualties, especially among children. Bone-chilling reports by Israeli outlets reveal that IDF soldiers have received orders to “shoot everyone” in Gaza, children included.

The Tal al-Hawa massacre is only the latest in a series of horrific massacres carried out by Israeli forces in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza City this past week, killing over sixty Palestinians. The victims include eleven-year-old Yazan Al-Sarsawi, who was shot in the head by Israeli snipers. After two weeks of brutal assault, Israeli troops pulled out of parts of Shuja’iyya, leaving it in utter ruins; Gaza officials have declared the ravaged neighborhood a “disaster area,” using the Arabic adjective mankuba, which unmistakably evokes the trauma of the Nakba.

On Wednesday, in what amounts to ethnic cleansing, Israel issued an expulsion order for Gaza City, where Israeli jets dropped leaflets declaring the city “a dangerous combat zone” and warning “everyone in Gaza City” to evacuate, with nowhere safe to go. United Nations (UN) officials have said repeatedly that there is no safe refuge in Gaza, while Amnesty International has said that Israel’s repeated “evacuation” orders in Gaza amount to “unlawful transfer, a war crime.”

In the words of UN chief António Guterres, “Palestinians in Gaza keep being forced to move like human pinballs across a landscape of destruction of death. . . . Nowhere is safe, everywhere is a potential killing zone.”

At least 120 bodies have been uncovered in Gaza City in the wake of IDF withdrawal, found in rubble, on streets, and in homes. These include ten bodies, most of them children, uncovered in the vicinity of UNRWA’s industrial area and Mustafa Hafez School, west of Khan Younis.

The week’s horror has been unending. Israeli forces bombed several schools sheltering displaced civilians in Gaza. One bombing, in the town of Abassan, east of Khan Younis, killed at least thirty Palestinians, most of them children. Israeli forces have converted a UN school in Gaza into a military base manned with armored tanks and vehicles, while the IDF has used US-made bulldozers to bury and hide bodies of dead Palestinians across Gaza. Horrific footage shows a grieving Palestinian mother searching for her son’s grave after the Israeli army bulldozed the graves.

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza massacred an entire Palestinian family: a father, Mohammed Rai, and his three daughters, Rital, Mai, and Laila. Rital, aged five, was found without her head.

These massacres come as the United States has resumed sending shipments of five-hundred-pound bombs to Israel, despite overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes. Recently, the prestigious medical journal the Lancet published a shocking report revealing that the death toll in Gaza may have exceeded 186,000 Palestinians, an apocalyptic figure that amounts to 8 percent of Gaza’s population. The report further noted, “The horror unfolding in Gaza is unquestionably a genocide, and the full extent of that horror won’t be truly known until it comes to an end.”

To quote UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini, “Gaza is decimated. More than two million people are trapped in a living hell.”

Gaza is being annihilated with US weapons. To cite UNRWA, “The level of destruction across the Gaza Strip is unfathomable. Houses, schools, hospitals and infrastructure have been turned to rubble.” Backed by the Biden administration’s “ironclad” support, Israel continues to act with impunity in Gaza. Asked about the reported toll of civilians in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded with a smirk. Joe Biden mused during his press conference this week that “my numbers are better in Israel than here.”

The Gaza genocide is entering its tenth month, with no end in sight. The death toll has now exceeded forty thousand victims, including over fifteen thousand children. An UNRWA official warned that “if this war continues, we are on the verge of losing a whole generation of children.”

The irony was not lost on Palestinians when Western leaders gathered recently to commemorate anniversary of the Bosnian genocide, which turned twenty-nine this week — not because the Gaza genocide has so far reaped at least five times as many victims as did the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia, but mainly because the Gaza genocide has exposed the thin gruel of liberal leaders’ and institutions’ professed commitment to human rights.