Jewish-American Journalist Max Blumenthal Visits Gaza and Tweets Images of a Devastated City

This was Beit Hanoun, Gaza, today - tweets @MaxBlumenthal in the first of a series of photographs he posts on Twitter showing the extent of the damage he witnessed

This was Beit Hanoun, Gaza, today – tweets @MaxBlumenthal in the first of a series of photographs he posts on Twitter showing the extent of the damage he witnessed

Jewish-American journalist, author and blogger Max Blumenthal visited Gaza's Beit Hanoun on the north-eastern border with Israel on August 15. He was accompanied by Palestine-based journalist Dan Cohen.

Gazans were taking advantage of a much-anticipated ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to try and salvage what they can from the rubble. Prior to the ceasefire, the offensive in Gaza had claimed the lives of 1,951 people, including over 70 families and 467 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israeli NGO B'TSelem has confirmed the death of at least 1,767 Gazans and 431 children while the percentage of civilians killed ranges from 73 to 80 per cent according to the United Nations.

What Blumenthal and Cohen saw, however, was a town “completely flattened” by Israeli aerial and tank attacks. Beit Hanoun made worldwide headlines when an Israeli strike on a UN school killed 15 civilians on the 24th of July despite the UN asking the IDF for time to evacuate. Unfortunately, the devastation was not limited to a single school as you will see below.

The following is the timeline of their visit:

Follow our in-depth coverage: #Gaza: Civilian Death Toll Mounts in Israeli Offensive

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