Beach umbrellas and missile launch pads: inside the wreckage of northern Gaza

The beachfront in Gaza has been churned up by war. Ragged parasols poke out of the sand, next to a buckled lifeguard’s chair. And just to one side is the incongruous sight of a Hamas missile launch pad with 20 rockets, aimed, said the Israeli army, at Tel Aviv.

“This is a beach, the kind used by normal civilians like us,” said Major Maayan of the Israel Defense Forces engineering corps. “But they also store rockets here. Typical Hamas.”