Sderot – a predominantly Israeli city long symbolising unflinching resilience – now cradles the weight of unparalleled despair and defiance.
Devastating visuals emerge from its streets in the wake of the deadly surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday.
The smoky plumes from charred vehicles and the pervasive, haunting sirens weave a narrative of anguish, resilience, and an eerie apprehension of the near future.
WATCH: Israeli and Palestine residents count their losses
As the world peers into this microcosm of suffering through lenses and pixels, the visuals narrate only fragments of the deeply embedded pain.
Simultaneously, Palestinian civilians, battered by retaliatory airstrikes, paint a similarly poignant portrait of civilians caught in the harrowing vice of conflict.
Building remnants entwined with smoke, ash-covered vehicles, and the rubble-strewn paths where life once buzzed is a testament to the merciless nature of neverending conflict and war.
Hamas, governing Gaza, executed a surprise and deadly attack, catapulting both territories into a ferocious cycle of violent retaliatory attacks.
Israel, “in a state of war,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responded with a heavy hand, its airstrikes upon Gaza leaving behind a landscape dotted with grief and destruction.
The latest onslaught carries a soaring death toll on both sides – over 800 in Israel due to the initial Hamas offensive and 560 in Gaza from retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, according to multiple reports.
Observers have compared the latest attack to that of the Yom Kippur War. In 1973, a surprise attack on the holiest day in Judaism was mounted by a coalition of Arab states, leading to a war that has since cast long, indelible shadows over the region.
