Khan Younis, Sept. 29 -- The war followed people even as they fled. Hours after families left cramped classrooms and tarpaulin tents to hunt for bread or a phone charge, blasts again tore through central districts, killing the displaced alongside those who never moved. Health workers described a morning of simultaneous strikes and blocked roads, a cruel arithmetic that left rescuers arguing with time.

At the edge of Nuseirat, a narrow lane that had become a waystation for families from the north fell silent after an explosion that folded concrete into itself. Survivors said the blast arrived without warning; the dust arrived faster than the shouts. Reports from the ground counted the dead among people who had not seen their original neig...