CBS News witnesses aftermath of deadly Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza

Note: Some viewers may find the video at the top of this article distressing.

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In the city of Rafah, at the far southern end of the long, narrow Gaza Strip, a massive airstrike all but obliterated a residential neighborhood Tuesday as Israel continued hammering the Palestinian enclave in its war with Gaza's Hamas rulers. CBS News cameras arrived just moments after the strike razed several houses to the ground and left devastation in its wake. 

Our video shows children among those being pulled from the rubble of the airstrike on the southern half of the Gaza Strip — to which Israel's military told Palestinian civilians to evacuate last week as it ramped up operations across northern Gaza that it says are all targeting Hamas.

CBS News producer Marwan al-Ghoul witnessed the immediate aftermath and said he personally "saw dozens of killed people and dozens of injuries" — all of them civilians.

He said there weren't enough ambulances or rescue workers to transport the victims, and people at the scene were struggling with their bare hands to find and rescue victims trapped underneath the rubble. 

The images reflect the scale of suffering being inflicted on Palestinian civilians as Israeli forces continue to lay waste to the Hamas-controlled territory, displacing an estimated 1 million people from the northern half of the strip, according to the United Nations.

More than 10 days into a complete Israeli blockade of Gaza, health authorities in the enclave said Tuesday that they only had enough fuel left to keep hospitals running for another 24 hours. U.N. officials have warned that the fuel shortage could put thousands of patients' lives at serious risk. 

At the southern end of Rafah city is the Rafah border crossing with Egypt — the sole Gaza border gate that does not lead into Israel, and the only one not locked down over the past week by Israeli security forces. Egyptian officials have said the ongoing Israeli airstrikes in the area have made it impossible to open the Rafah crossing, and the U.S. has been working with both Egypt and Israel for days to secure at least a brief opening for foreign nationals to escape Gaza and for aid supplies to get in. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the U.S. and Israel had agreed "to develop a plan" to get aid into Gaza, and President Biden was to visit Israel on Wednesday.   

Egyptian aid trucks have moved closer to the border, the Reuters news agency reported Tuesday, but it remains unclear when a humanitarian deal might be struck to open the Rafah crossing for any period of time. 

Hundreds of foreign passport holders — including as many as 600 U.S. nationals — are among those trapped inside Gaza. 

In:
• Hamas
• Israel
• United Nations
• Gaza Strip
• Egypt

Imtiaz Tyab

Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London.

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