In Tuesday’s early morning hours, as Palestinians in Gaza were preparing for another day of fasting for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, Israeli forces pounded the besieged Strip with a massive surprise-attack barrage of air strikes, killing over 450 people, most of them women and children.

It was a brutal act of wanton killing. In the span of hours, entire Palestinian families were wiped out and buried in the rubble of their homes. Children and women were burned alive and murdered in their sleep. Survivors include a month-old girl, who was pulled from the rubble after the air strike killed her parents and brother.

Among the victims were the family of Nasreen Abdu, who was killed alongside her husband and three children when their family home was bombed in Gaza City. She was the sister of prominent Palestinian legal advocate Rami Abdu, who serves as the chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which documents war crimes in Gaza, and who lamented the tragedy with astonishing resilience.