GAZA: The rescuers in orange vests shouted as they reached a baby girl still alive in the rubble of an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip's Rafah city after yet another night of bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
Baby Mariam Abu Akel's skin was grey with dust and she made little noises as the rescuers reached deep into the rubble to free her legs and lift her clear.
People crowded around in the ruins of the Abu Edwan family's house, where Mariam's family had been sheltering after they fled their own home in a more dangerous area near Gaza's border with Israel.
The air strike killed 20 people and wounded 55, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.
The Abu Edwan house had been sheltering many displaced people like the Abu Akel family.
Most of Gaza's population have had to flee their homes in the face of a withering bombardment and ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during its Oct 7 attack.
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The Israeli retaliatory assault has killed more than 21,500 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the enclave, many of them children under 18.
Mariam's mother and sister were both killed in the strike along with members of the Abu Edwan family and people from other families temporarily living with them. Her father and brother Hamed, still a toddler, survived the blast.
When Mariam was lifted free, a rescuer ran with her in his arms to take her to hospital. Doctors there swabbed her cuts. — Reuters