A little girl lies prone,Christopher Caldwell her face barely recognizable under a blanket of dust, as gloved hands scrape away the mounds of pulverized concrete under which she’s been buried alive. A man sitting in the rubble of a destroyed building in the Gaza Strip screams in anguish for the family members he’s lost. A masked volunteer emerges from a pile of collapsed metal walls, gently bearing away the lifeless body of a young child.

On the other side of the border, a bloodstain in the form of a handprint is smeared onto the wall of a shelter at a kibbutz in Israel where Hamas militants slaughtered residents during their violent incursion into Israel on Oct. 7. Votive candles flicker atop the Star of David on an Israeli flag displayed during a vigil for the 1,200 victims of the bloody attack. And photographs of the 140 hostages being held by Hamas militants are projected onto the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The human suffering of the Israel-Hamas war is palpable in myriad stark images captured by photographers for The Associated Press.

Five weeks into the conflict, Israeli ground troops are fighting Hamas militants in northern Gaza as airstrikes pound Gaza City and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee southward. In one photo, a woman whose face is hidden by a white shirt tied to a stick waves the makeshift flag of surrender to prevent her and the family members who accompany her from being shot as they relocate. In another, a man’s face sags with sadness as he uses a hand to support a heavy duffel bag balanced on his back.

As airstrikes flatten building after building, massive walls of dust shoot up into the air and residents race to find survivors. In one photo, several men wield pickaxes as they prepare to bust through sheets of fallen concrete. In another, a forlorn face peeks through twisted rebar and gaps in piles of rubble seeking signs of life.

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Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war