‘No warning, just bombs’: Heart-wrenching testimonies from Gaza's Nuseirat camp massacre

By Hosni Nadim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - “It was like an apocalyptic day; everyone was fleeing, and the streets were filled with bodies.” This is how Umm Islam al-Assar, a Palestinian woman, described the situation in the Nuseirat refugee camp after a deadly Israeli attack.

Assar sits beside her niece at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to receive medical attention after her niece was seriously injured in the attack.

“What happened was totally unexpected,” Assar recalled. “Suddenly, we heard explosions everywhere, with drone gunfire targeting everyone.”

With visible shock and sorrow on her pale face, the Palestinian woman said, “There was no warning or alert. The Israeli army suddenly started bombing and shooting at homes. My brother's house collapsed on his wife and six daughters. People ran into the streets, not knowing what was happening.”

Two of her nieces were killed and the other four and their mother were injured in the attack.

At least 274 people were killed and 700 others injured in the Israeli attack, which coincided with an Israeli operation to rescue four hostages held by Hamas in the camp in the central Gaza Strip.

- ‘Horrific massacre’

Assar called for protecting civilians and children from the brutal Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

“What did this child, her sisters, and their mother do to deserve this? They had no part in anything. Why were they targeted in such a horrific way?” she asked.

Standing nearby, her sister, also called Umm Islam, recalled the deadly Israeli attack in the crowded camp.

“Suddenly, the world turned upside down, with martyrs on the ground, and even the innocent, both young and old, were wounded,” Umm Islam said.

“What did all these martyrs and injured people do to deserve this war? What did they do to face such a horrific massacre?"

- Battlefield

A witness, who was injured in the Israeli attack, shared his testimony in a video circulated on social media.

“I was walking down the street and saw a parked truck filled with utensils and tools. We thought it belonged to displaced people coming from Rafah,” he said.

“All of a sudden, ten Israeli special forces soldiers emerged from the truck and started shooting, hitting me with three bullets in my chest and arm,” he added.

The witness described the Nuseirat market area as being filled with explosions, with dead and injured people on the ground everywhere.

On Saturday, Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli special forces infiltrated the Nuseirat camp using a truck similar to those used for humanitarian aid delivery.

Hours after the attack, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed on X that the special forces did not enter Nuseirat using an aid truck nor used the US floating pier during the operation, despite CNN's confirmation of American involvement in the attack.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,120 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 84,700 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul