Israel Defence Forces attack on Al Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza kills woman’s entire family

Falling to her knees in anguish, Muna Habil was inconsolable as her neighbours tried to comfort her.

Her mother, her father, her brother and her sister-in-law were killed by a blast at a building in Al Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza about 6am local time on Saturday.

Five children — her nieces and nephews — also died.

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“I have no one left — all my family is gone,” Habil cried. “They killed them.”

As she was sleeping in the building next door, Habil said she had dreamt that something bad was going to happen to them. Her dream became a living nightmare.

She said she woke to find that multiple buildings, including at least one occupied home, had been destroyed.

The Israel Defence Forces was asked by NBC News whether they targeted the building where her family was staying and if so, why.

As rescue crews, supplemented by men and young boys from the camp, frantically searched through the rubble for survivors, Habil stood nearby as the occasional shout of prayer went up when someone was found alive.

The ash-covered residents were then transferred to stretchers and taken for treatment, before the search resumed.

Habil was surrounded by grieving people and at one point, with tears streaming, began slapping her own face until someone pulled her arms away to stop her, and other women came forward to comfort her.

“Oh God, I’m going to die without them,” she shouted. “They’re dead. They’re dead. I have no one.”

Israel has issued repeated warnings for civilians to evacuate northern Gaza since Hamas militants launched its massive, multipronged terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.

As a result, more than one million Palestinians, or just under half of Gaza’s population, have made their way south amid airstrikes and heavy bombardment on all parts of the enclave, ahead of a highly anticipated ground assault by Israeli forces.

Tanks and tens of thousands of troops have massed at the border, but the Israel Defence Forces have acknowledged there are still hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza, which would complicate any ground attack.

Some have been unwilling or simply unable to leave the north, and the order has been criticised by aid groups and branded “impossible” by the United Nations.

By early Saturday, it was too late for Habil’s family.

After her neighbours helped her fix her hijab, some women walked with Habil to a nearby hospital about 3km away, where the bodies of her family members had been taken.

“What can I do, now that they’re gone?” she said.