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AP PHOTOS: A week of war brings grief to everyday Israelis and Palestinians alike

By The Associated Press 2 min read
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Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis, during a surprise attack on Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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The body of a man shot dead lies in front of a gate at Kibbutz Kfar Azza during an attack by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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A house burns in Kibbutz Kfar Azza during a deadly attack on the community by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip during a deadly attack on the community, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip during a deadly attack on the community, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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Palestinians walk and drive away from Kibbutz Kfar Azza, Israel, near the fence with the Gaza strip following a deadly attack on the community on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The rockets were fired as Hamas announced a new operation against Israel.

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The bodies of civilians killed by Palestinian militants lie covered in Sderot, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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An Israeli woman grieves over the body of her relative who was killed by Palestinian armed militants who entered from the Gaza strip, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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A ball of fire and smoke rise from an explosion on a Palestinian apartment tower following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

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Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.

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Palestinian relatives mourn over the body of Ahmad Awawda, 19, who was killed in clashes with Israeli troops near the city of Nablus the previous day, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.

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Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.

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Palestinian civil defense crews try to extinguish a fire in a house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Oct. 8, 2023.

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Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023..

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Palestinians inspect the rubble of the Yassin Mosque, destroyed after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, early Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

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Relatives mourn people killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

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Israelis evacuate a site struck by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

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An Israeli firefighter kneels to compose himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

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Palestinians walk amid the rubble following Israeli airstrikes that razed swaths of a neighborhood in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023.

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Israelis take cover in a shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023.

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Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023.

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Israeli soldiers take positions near Kibbutz Kfar Azza on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. Hamas militants overran Kfar Azza on Saturday, where many Israelis were killed and taken captive.

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Rubble litters a street between smoldering buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.

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Israelis take cover from the incoming rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.

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Mourners grieve beside the body of Mapal Adam during her funeral in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Adam was killed by Hamas militants on Saturday as they carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack that killed over 1,300 Israelis.

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Palestinians evacuate a man wounded during an Israeli aerial bombardment of Jabaliya, near Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.

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Palestinian children wounded in Israeli strikes are brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.

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Palestinians wounded in Israeli strikes wait to be seen at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.

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Tents, debris and a burned out van are scattered about the site of a music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. At least 260 Israeli festival-goers were killed during the attack by Hamas gunmen on Saturday, Oct. 7.

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Family members mourn during the funeral of Israeli soldier Shilo Rauchberger at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.

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Palestinians evacuate wounded after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.

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Israelis take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip in Rehovot, Israel, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

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Eli Albag cries over the photograph of his daughter Liri, as he gathers with others during a protest demanding the release of dozens of Israelis who were abducted by Hamas during their unprecedented attack a week earlier, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023.

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Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023.

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Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

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Palestinians flee from northern Gaza to the south after the Israeli army issued an unprecedented evacuation warning to a population of over 1 million people in northern Gaza and Gaza City to seek refuge in the south ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

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Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip are brought to al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah City, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023.

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An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel toward the Gaza Strip, in a position near the Israel-Gaza border, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023.

The carnage began with a violent cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians. Israel’s retaliatory response was swift, and by the middle of the week, the full destructive force of its military was bearing down on the Gaza Strip amid mounting threats of a ground invasion.

The toll, whether caused by bullets or air strikes, has brought unimaginable grief for Israelis and Palestinians alike. In wrenching scene after wrenching scene, relatives weep over their dead, whose lives were suddenly and violently cut short in an erupting war that has shattered thousands of families.

In the southern city of Sderot, an Israeli woman clings to a body lying in the road next to an overturned motorcycle. Now covered in a white sheet with a black boot poking out, the person was killed by Hamas militants the day they broke through the fortified border with Gaza. The woman cries in agony as she lays her head on the person’s chest.

Miles away in Gaza City, two Palestinian women comfort one another in a crowd gathered to mourn those killed by an Israeli airstrike. One, looking weary and exhausted, gazes upward in sorrow.

These images, taken by Associated Press photographers on the ground on both sides of the conflict, provide a window into the unbearable losses of this past week.

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