STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And let's go next to Gaza itself, which is widely accessible to Western journalists for the first time since the shooting began. And as reporters are going in, civilians in North Gaza are returning to their homes. Many wept. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.
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ERIC WESTERVELT: Muttering prayers and weeping, 55-year-old Hahdija Sakker walks into her three-story home in the Tuam neighborhood of northern Gaza City. The area is on a patch of high ground near the sea. Today, big parts of Tuam have been reduced to rubble. The walls on two sides of Sakker's home are gone. The roof is blown out. Inside, there's nothing but debris. The upstairs is teetering on the verge of collapse.
HAHDIJA SAKKER: (Through translator) I don't know what I hope or what to say, but what do the Israelis want from us? We are civilians; we just want to live. Why do they attack us? They attack with planes. Let them attack other planes or the resistance. We are civilians. We didn't do anything. Where shall I go now? I have three families in my house. If I go to relatives or friends, they will keep me for two or three days, or a week. But after that, where shall I go? What shall I do?
WESTERVELT: I lost everything, she repeats over and over again. Outside, the sound of Israeli naval gunfire echoes all along the beach. Some cease-fire, she says. The Israeli military says it's checking about the gunfire but had no immediate answer. Fifteen family members, many of them children, lived in Sakker's house until the fighting began.
SAKKER: (Through translator) Honestly, I'm telling you, none of my sons or family members were Hamas or resistance fighters. That's why we were so confident no one would attack us, and why we stayed here until the last minute.
WESTERVELT: Her husband finally left - reluctantly, she says - before the Israeli tanks rolled in. He was wounded by shrapnel in an airstrike and is recovering in the hospital. Israeli infantry and armor clearly set up fighting positions here; on the trashed floors, there are big sacks of Israeli military bread, and wrappers from Israeli power bars. Bulletshell casings litter the sand. Outside, sand berms from tanks and deep tracks from armored personnel carriers crisscross the rubble. Two young grandsons trail behind Sakker in silence, looking frightened. She says waves her hand, weeps, and says she blames the Israel Defense Force, or IDF, and Hamas.
SAKKER: (Through translator) I blame both of them. I blame the IDF for destroying our house but finally, I blame both of them for what happened to us. Both take the responsibilities.
WESTERVELT: What did we ever get from those stupid rockets? she says of the Hamas attacks into southern Israel. Then, 10 minutes later, she unleashes a wave of anger at Israel. We didn't side with Hamas or Fateh, she says of Gaza's main factions. But now, she says, that's changed: We are with Hamas.
SAKKER: (Through translator) Now look what they have done to me. They have destroyed my house. I wasn't in the resistance. But now I will oblige my sons to be the resistance. Now I will be Hamas. We hate them more now. I feel more hatred toward them.
WESTERVELT: Hamas official Ghazi Hamad concedes that the group's fighters were no match for the Israeli military, and he's not declaring victory by any means. But Hamad says Israel cannot claim victory, either.
GHAZI HAMAD: I think because Israel failed to kill the fighters of Palestinian factions - they killed more innocent people, more women, more kids - I think this not victory. They did not succeed to stop firing missiles. They did not stop the - to crack down Hamas or Palestinian faction. So I think this is not victory.
WESTERVELT: The scenes of devastation and loss are playing out all across northern Gaza today. People are picking through the ruins of their homes, and using donkey carts and taxis to haul away anything they can find. Eric Westervelt, NPR news, Gaza.