Gaza neighborhood Rimal leveled by Israel airstrikes | Latest war news

The Gaza City neighborhood once known as Al Rimal - "the sands" - was reduced to ashes in the airstrikes that have come as a response by Israel to the Hamas attack over the weekend.

Palestinians in the sealed-off Gaza Strip scrambled to find safety Wednesday, as Israeli strikes demolished entire neighborhoods, hospitals ran low on supplies and a power blackout was expected within hours, further deepening the misery of a war sparked by a deadly mass incursion of Hamas militants.

Airstrikes smashed entire city blocks to rubble in the tiny coastal enclave and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris. The bombardment raged on even though militants are holding an estimated 150 people dragged from Israel into Gaza — soldiers, men, women, children and older adults.