We constantly see bombardment. Every day we see it, today I felt it shake my house,’ a resident tells The Independent

Intense fighting between soldiers and Hamas militants has left parts of the city uninhabitable, say residents who returned.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dozens of bodies collected throughout Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood arrived at Al-Ahli Hospital on Friday morning while civil defense workers said they continued to recover the dead from destroyed streets and buildings.

Israeli forces pulled back from parts of Gaza City overnight, after a fierce, week-long offensive that met with Hamas resistance, leaving dozens of dead and wrecked homes and roads in the Palestinian enclave's biggest urban area,

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after the Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7 in which militants stormed into the south and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250.

Israel rained bombs on Gaza City during a week that residents described as comparable to the fiercest battle of the war, while a Palestinian Islamic Jihad official on Thursday said a new round of peace talks ended with no agreements yet.