Fear of being forgotten Despair in Gaza as focus shifts away

As Israeli bombs began to fall across Lebanon, the scenes of bloodshed and chaos were grimly familiar to the people of Gaza. Mai al-Afifa, 24, was teaching a workshop about how to identify unexploded ordnance in a school turned shelter in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah last Thursday when an Israeli missile hit the next building in the compound.

- Bethan McKernan

Twentyeight people were killed and 54 injured, according to medics at the scene.

Through the smoke and rubble dust Afifa saw the body parts of two women and a male aid worker as she stumbled to safety. The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas fighters using the school as a command centre.

"We are very sad about what is happening now in Lebanon... We have experienced this pain and loss," Afifa said. "But we also fear that Gaza will be forgotten: the massacres have increased here and no one is talking about it. All the TV channels are talking about the regional war, Iran, Israel and what is happening in Lebanon."

Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon at the beginning of October after two weeks of heavy airstrikes and targeted assassinations aimed at destroying Hezbollah's leadership and military capabilities.

Hezbollah had begun firing on Israel the day after Hamas's 7 October attack that triggered the new war, ostensibly in solidarity with the Palestinian group. Cross-border fire over the past year has displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the blue line from their homes.