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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

After two sleepless days and nights of Israeli shelling and Palestinian rocket fire, Gazans on Monday faced a first day of Ramadan overshadowed by funerals and the grim task of pulling bodies from collapsed buildings.

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

Other government employees lined up at banks to draw out money they had been unable to collect during the hostilities.

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris
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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

In the Sheikh Zayed neighbourhood of northern Gaza, residents were in shock a day after an Israeli air strike killed six people. The four apartments wrecked in the five-storey building were among 600 housing units left destroyed or damaged, according to the Ministry of Housing.

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris
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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

"I have never seen in my life more horrifying images than I saw yesterday. I saw dismembered bodies, burnt up bodies," said 60-year-old Ziyad Hammash, who lives in the building across the street.

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris
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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

Sumayya Usruf, whose cousin, husband and four-month infant child were killed in an apartment in the northern Gaza Strip, said: "This is a very tough Ramadan. We will not feel festive."

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris
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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

As she spoke, dozens of men brought the body of the baby home for farewell. Inside the ambulance was a coffin filled with flesh and body parts.

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris
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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris

"This round is over but I am afraid another will soon begin. We aspire to a day when nothing of this will happen," said 55-year-old Adel Mohammad-Ali at one funeral.

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Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan amid funerals and debris