Gaza - (AFP) - From the deserted streets to the closed curtains behind the balconies... Hours of Israeli raids, which mainly targeted the Islamic Jihad movement, revived memories of a war not long ago, and scenes that are repeated before their eyes, as if the people of the besieged Gaza Strip signed yesterday.

On Friday afternoon, and as every weekend, the Gaza Corniche was crowded with pilgrims, who see it as one of the few outlets for the people of a strip that is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and has been under Israeli siege for 15 years.

In less than 24 hours, the scene changed radically: The Corniche, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, became a deserted area missing its visitors, and its cafes closed their doors while their owners stayed in their homes due to the continued Israeli raids, to which the "Quds Brigades", the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, responded by firing bursts. of missiles towards the Jewish state.

The city center, too, was largely empty of movement, as many Gazans chose to take shelter in their homes. And those of them who chose to venture out do so just to inspect the damage of the raids, the shattered glass scattered on the ground, and the traces of the fires that affect the buildings.

"Frankly, this aggression surprised us. We were living in peace, and suddenly the bombing occurred on Friday afternoon," Muhammad Hamami, 40, told AFP. "The occupation always begins by bombing us," he added.

On Friday, the Israeli army announced that it had launched a "preemptive" operation against the Islamic Jihad Movement, the second most prominent armed faction in the Strip after Hamas.

While Israel said it had killed 15 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that 11 people were killed and eighty others were wounded.

Among the dead were Tayseer al-Jabari, a prominent commander in the "Quds Brigades," and Alaa Qaddum, the five-year-old who died after targeting a residential neighborhood where she lives.

The family of the arrival of their daughter while she was still wearing a pink "T-shirt" coordinated with her dark hair tie.

"We demand an end to the occupation's aggression against us. It is enough, it is enough, every few months or a year there is a war," Hamami says with grief and sorrow.

He added, "We live in terror, this occupation is ruthless (...) it bombs homes, pedestrians, and cars, even the streets and agricultural lands" in the Strip, which is inhabited by 2.3 million people on an area of 362 square kilometers, and has witnessed four wars between Israel and the Palestinian factions since 2007.

The last major confrontations took place in May 2021, and lasted for 11 days, killing 260 people on the Palestinian side, including members of the armed factions, compared to 14 people on the Israeli side, including a soldier, according to local authorities.

The roar of planes and the sound of explosions deprived Donia Al-Amal Ismail of sleeping all night from Friday to Saturday, and brought back to her memory the painful scenes of previous wars.

Even in the intervals between one raid and another, when the roar of fighter jets ceases, the people of Gaza do not enjoy complete calm, as the roar of Israeli drones, known locally as "drones", pierces the skies of the Strip.

"The recent escalation brought to mind images of fear, destruction, anxiety, loss, and the feeling that we are alone," says Dunia, a resident of Al-Rimal neighborhood in central Gaza.

And she added, "I hope that this escalation will not be prolonged, spread, or turn into a larger confrontation, and that the Egyptian mediation will succeed in calming the situation."

Egyptian sources indicate that Cairo, which previously played a mediating role for calm between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip, is making a similar effort this time as well.

While waiting for the efforts to yield a calm, albeit temporary, that puts an end to the sound of shelling and raids, many of the residents of the Strip go to inspect the damage and try to save what is left of their property.

In the city of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Fouad Farajallah inspects his house, or at least what remains of it: a living room that has been transformed into a mixture of metal sheets, stones and rubble, and a white fan that miraculously remains hanging from the iron ceiling of the house.

"I was sitting with my wife and children on the sofa (...) Praise be to God, we survived, but my wife broke her hand and my child was hit by shrapnel in his body," Farajallah told AFP.

"Everything happened to us. We didn't know what happened," he added.