And then the Alien turned toward Zanna

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Cancelled Air France Flight 1320 to Tel Aviv: photo by AP, 22 July 2014

8:25 P.M: Air France indefinitely suspends flights to Israel. -- Reuters, 22 July 2014

Israeli air strikes and gun battles with Hamas shatter Gaza frontline village

Less than two miles from Israeli border Zanna residents mourn the dead and dig out bodies from homes reduced to rubble

Peter Beaumont in Zanna, southern Khan Younis, Gaza, Wednesday 23 July 2014 14.28 EDT

A short while after the Israeli tanks pulled back from Gaza's frontline village of Zanna on Wednesday morning, residents returned to dig out the dead buried within the rubble of their homes, rescue their surviving livestock and see if their houses were still standing.

The village is the scene of some of the heaviest ground fighting of the 16-day conflict and marks the deepest point penetrated by Israeli armour and infantry. It has been too dangerous a place to enter for more than seven days.

In the first stage of the conflict, the village was pummelled with Israeli shelling and air strikes. More recently, it provided a theatre for fierce gun battles between Hamas and Israeli fighters.

A woman in Zanna is overcome by the destruction in the village following heavy tank fire and air strikes over almost a week: photo by Harald Henden/VG, 23 July 2014

As the tanks rolled back on Wednesday, bringing respite from the shells, drone strikes, machine-gun fire and missiles, families cautiously returned home.

The Israeli tanks, residents warned sharply, might have pulled back for now but they were still only 700 metres away, hidden in the trees of the farmland. Israeli shells still boomed nearby. They advised not to remain for long.

Zanna, a rural community on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis, is less than two miles from Gaza's southern border with Israel.

Destruction in the village of Zanna, eastern Khan Younis, seen after Israeli tanks pulled out in the morning following a night of intense bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

The numbers of people killed and injured there are still unknown. In the nearby village of Khuzaar hundreds remained trapped on Wednesday.

Zanna's streets bore testament to the violence that has engulfed it. One resident, Islam Abu Jamaa, picked her way among the fallen cables, rubble and shell casings. A young woman covered with a white headscarf, she halted only for a moment to answer questions before bursting into frightened tears. "I went to see if my house had been damaged," she explained. "But I could not see it. It is gone. It has completely vanished!"

As she hurried off in the direction of Khan Younis, less than a mile or so back along the main road to safety, a man passed struggling with a rescued sheep cradled in his arms.

A villager attempts to rescue a sheep during Israel attack on frontline area of Zanna (Khan Younis), two miles from the border with Israel: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

Eight Hamas militants were killed, according to a Palestinian health official, in the fierce battles in and around Zanna, where, on Tuesday night, militants deployed rocket propelled grenades and machine guns against Israeli troops, reportedly killing one Israeli soldier.

Aziza Msabah described the battle to the Associated Press: "The airplanes and air strikes all around us." Bombs and shells were hitting the houses, "which are collapsing upon us".
The Guardian came across a scene that supported Msabah's account during a visit to the battle site Wednesday morning. Scarcely a building had escaped damage. Water storage tanks had been shot at from the roofs, and the streets were pock-marked with mortar detonations.

Destruction in the village of Zanna, eastern Khan Younis, seen after Israeli tanks pulled out in the morning following a night of intense bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

One house had been reduced to a group of concrete pillars. Others had been left as little more than gutted shells, some were now just piles of shattered concrete.

In the village a piece of abandoned Israeli military equipment lay beached and abandoned in the middle of a road; a small towed-carrier of some sort, perhaps for ammunition, its tyres had been shot out.

A man dressed in black and holding a walkie-talkie –- a Hamas fighter it seemed -– stepped in front of the marooned vehicle to prevent pictures being taken. Several other men emerged from the battle-scarred buildings, some dirty with dust and, although not visibly armed, quick to shield their faces from the cameras.

Remnant of Israeli shell lies on the ground in the shattered village of Zanna, eastern Khan Younis, seen after Israeli tanks pulled out in the morning following a night of intense bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

During this ground war, villages like Zanna, in farmland close to the border, have been at the centre of the heaviest fighting. These are places which journalists, by and large, have been unable to reach and which people, trapped by the relentless fighting, have been unable to flee from.

A statement released by the Israeli military later confirmed that, in the past two days, "violent combat" took place on the eastern edges of Khan Younis.

"Our forces penetrated a number of neighbourhoods of Khan Younis and the surrounding villages in order to destroy arms caches used to attack our soldiers and rocket stockpiles used in the preceding days to fire at Israel.

Destruction in the village of Zanna, eastern Khan Younis, seen after Israeli tanks pulled out in the morning following a night of intense bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

"A unit of Israeli paratroopers was also active searching in Khan Younis and the surrounding area the previous night for tunnel entrances."

The statement added that soldiers had come under fire from rocket-propelled grenades fired from a mosque, injuring several of their number including a sergeant, Eviatar Turgeman, who later died from his wounds. Residents added that the assault involved Israeli tanks, bulldozers and mortar teams.

The physical evidence suggests that fighters from Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups took up positions in the village houses, the walls of which have been smashed and perforated by heavy cannon fire.

A boy stands in the ruins of the shattered frontline village of Zanna (Khan Younis), two miles from the border with Israel, after massive Israeli bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

Most of those living in the village are members of the extended Abu Jamaa family -– 28 of whom were killed at the weekend in a single air strike at the height of the assault.

Mohammad Abu Jamaa examined one of the ruined houses. The Israeli tanks came to the open area near the border first, he said, before rolling into Zanna.

"This is the first time in seven days we have been able to come back to our houses. Those in the centre are all destroyed or damaged" he said. "I am a farmer. I keep chickens. When I heard the tanks had left, I rushed here to water them because they have not been watered for four days. But half of them are dead."

A man stands in the ruins of the shattered frontline village of Zanna (Khan Younis), two miles from the border with Israel, after massive Israeli bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

In the neighbouring area of Abassan Jadeed, a few hundred people gathered at a dusty cemetery to bury four bodies dug out of rubble earlier in the day -- among them was 
Khalil Abu Jamaa, who was aged 75.

In the crowd of mourners was a thin middle-aged man in a black robe who would only give a nickname for himself -- Abu Mohammad.

He said: "I left on the first day [of the assault]. I left just wearing what I am wearing today. I was in my home when a shell landed next to us. We decided to leave and when we were walking out we heard the bullets coming past us. We were only civilians. I did not see any fighters ..."

The shattered frontline village of Zanna (Khan Younis), two miles from the border with Israel, after massive Israeli bombardment: photo by Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

Hearing this account, a young man standing in the crowd exploded with rage. Fellow mourners were forced to intervene to prevent a physical fight.

"Of course there were fighters there! They were protecting the people!" the younger man shouted in fury before being hustled away.

As the Guardian left, five more human bodies were discovered amid the rubble of Zanna. They, perhaps, will not be the last to be dug out of the ruins of these Gaza villages.

Palestinian photojournalist Hazem Balousha in Gaza; Balousha holds a BA in Journalism, an MA in International Relations, and contributes to many news outlets including the Guardian and DW Arabic: photographer unknown via Hazem Balousha, 23 July 2014

Mock coffins are readied in the West Bank city of Ramallah for a 22 July protest in solidarity with Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip: photo by Shadi Hatem / APA images, 22 July 2014