KHERSON, Ukraine — One year since Ukraine retook the city of Kherson from occupying Russian forces, residents have grown accustomed to hearing outgoing fire from the left bank of the Dnieper river, where Russian troops are positioned. They know that familiar crackle means they have seven seconds to find a shelter, or a sturdy wall to hide behind.

Their lives are mostly limited to the comfort of home and the necessity of the supermarket. Many shops are still shuttered. Municipal workers wear bullet-proof vests and wait to be dispatched to sweep up the rubble from yet another impact.

Between lulls of artillery fire coming from the river, which marks the contact line between battling armies in the Kherson region, Ukrainians venture out to buy food, bicycle down grassy residential lanes or convene in the few restaurants that dare to remain open.

Marking the anniversary of Russia’s defeat on Nov. 11 is a bittersweet occasion, many residents say, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds on without producing the spectacular gains many had hoped for. But those who stay are steadfast in their belief that one day normal life will return.

“When you have lived under occupation, you know what freedom means,” said Grigori Malov, who owns one out of three restaurants still operating in the city. “It’s why we have a special attitude toward the continued shelling. We can withstand it because we know how it could be worse.”

The flight of Russian troops from Kherson under prolonged Ukrainian assault a year ago was one of Ukraine’s biggest successes in the war and was seen as an inflection point. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy triumphantly walked the streets of the newly liberated city back then, hailing Russia’s withdrawal as the “beginning of the end of the war.” Many hoped it would serve as a springboard for more advances into occupied territory.

Today, both sides are locked in a stalemated battle of attrition.

On Saturday, a rainy and cloudy day, the atmosphere was muted and few residents came out to mark the occasion, fearing Russian attacks. A handful of people came draped in Ukrainian flags and stood for a while at a monument in front of the administrative building, then walked away.

Malov didn’t work during the nine months he lived under Russian occupation. After the city fell back to Ukrainian control, he opened his eatery, which contains a cafe on the top floor and a restaurant in the basement, to help bring the city back to life. Residents celebrate birthdays, clinking glasses, as the fighting continues only a few miles away.

Ukrainian soldiers, resting between front-line stints, are frequent patrons, and come to Malov’s restaurant to eat bowls of pasta or cheesy pizzas and to share a laugh. Sometimes Malov even organizes stand-up comedy nights, when he can find an entertainer.

“I think we are fulfilling an important function, we are giving people the opportunity to relax,” he said. “Now it’s even more important than before.”

The sounds of incoming and outgoing fire resound continuously and residents have to organize their days in anticipation of them. They are most frequent in the morning and late afternoon, residents said. Air raid alarms echo almost incessantly, at all hours of the day.

Between 40-80 shells of different varieties land in Kherson city on a daily basis, said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, a spokesperson for the Kherson Regional State Administration.

“Every day people must take into consideration the shelling,” he said. Tolokonnikov was in the city on Nov. 12, one day after it was retaken, and recalled the joy of the crowds welcoming Ukrainian forces back.

A few days later, the shelling started, and it hasn’t stopped since, he said.

Security concerns aside, he says earning an income is another challenge for Ukrainians living in Kherson. There are no jobs for the nearly 71,000 residents in the city, which had a prewar population of 300,000. Most of those who remain are elderly, he said.

Dmytro and Olena were a rare sight: a young couple on a date. They went to the Kherson regional administrative building to hold up the Ukrainian flag and take photos ahead of the anniversary of the city’s liberation.

“It’s not safe in the city, maybe, but we are at home, we don’t want to move anywhere else,” said Olena. “We are spending time at home, we are trying to live, work and not leave.”

They spoke on the condition that only their first names be used. Their families are still living under occupation on the left bank of the river, they said.

Konstantin Krupenko supervised municipal workers as they cleaned the streets, clearing fallen autumn leaves ahead of the anniversary celebration. The men wore bulletproof vests, smoking in between hauling bags of foliage. Over the summer, Krupenko lost one of his workers who was struck by shrapnel from a Grad rocket. Another worker suffered a concussion.

Clearing leaves is an unusual task for municipal workers in Kherson, Krupenko said. Usually they are dispatched to remove rubble from explosion sites.

“Sometimes it’s big, sometimes it’s smaller, on houses,” he said, matter-of-factly describing their work routine.

“Day after every day, there is something.”

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s prime minister pushed back Saturday against calls from Western allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians, as troops encircled Gaza’s largest hospital where doctors said five patients died, including a premature baby, after the last generator ran out of fuel.

Israel has portrayed Shifa Hospital as Hamas’ main command post, saying militants were using civilians as human shields there and had set up elaborate bunkers underneath it. In recent days, fighting near Shifa and other hospitals in the combat zone of northern Gaza has intensified and supplies have run out.

“There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” said Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa, speaking by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions.

Abu Selmia said Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital,” and prevented movement between the buildings in the compound.

The claim that Israeli troops were the sole source of fire could not be verified independently. Asked about reports of troops firing into the Shifa courtyard, Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, would only say that troops are “in the midst of ongoing intense fighting against Hamas in the vicinity of the area in question.” He said the military takes all feasible measures to prevent harm to civilians.

Five patients died after the generator shut down, including a premature baby, said Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Health Ministry. He said Shifa had cared for 37 premature infants in total.

Israel has been opening the main road leading south each day for several hours to allow civilians to flee. On Saturday, the military for the first time announced a brief pause in combat as part of an evacuation window, specifically naming the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya next to Gaza City.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas, repeating long-standing allegations that the militant group uses civilians in Gaza as human shields. He said that while Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones, “Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving.”

His statement came after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for a cease-fire and urged other leaders to join his call, telling the BBC there was “no justification” for Israel’s ongoing bombing.

Following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were killed, Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to protect itself. But now into the second month of war, there are growing differences in how many feel Israel should conduct its fight.

The U.S. has been pushing for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire. However, Israel has so far only agreed to the brief daily periods during which civilians are able to flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along the territory’s main north-south artery.

Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to U.N. monitors. On Saturday, the military announced a new evacuation window, saying civilians could use the central road and a coastal road. Tens of thousands more remain in northern Gaza, many sheltering at hospitals and overcrowded U.N. facilities.

Palestinian civilians and rights advocates have pushed back against Israel’s portrayal of the southern evacuation zones as “relatively safe,” noting that Israeli bombardment has continued across Gaza, including airstrikes in the south that Israel says target Hamas leaders, but that have also killed women and children.

The U.S. and Israel also have diverging views on what a post-war Gaza should look like. Netanyahu and military leaders have said this needs to be dictated solely by Israel’s security needs, such as ensuring no threats emerge from the territory. Israel has said a key goal of the war is to crush Hamas, a militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to reporters Friday during a tour of Asia, laid out what he said were fundamental principles for a post-war Gaza, some of which seemed to run counter to Israel’s narrow approach.

Blinken said these principles include “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no use of Gaza as a platform for launching terrorism or other attacks against Israel, no diminution in the territory of Gaza, and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance for Gaza and for the West Bank, and in a unified way.”

FIGHTING AROUND HOSPITALS

Concern has grown in recent days as fighting through the dense neighborhoods of Gaza City has come closer to hospitals, which Israel claims are being used by Hamas fighters.

On Saturday, Palestinians said Israeli troops were within view of Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest. Israel has said Hamas’ main command center is located underneath the hospital, claims Hamas and Shifa staff deny.

Thousands of civilians had been sheltering in the Shifa compound in recent weeks, but many fled Friday after several nearby strikes in which one person was killed and several were wounded.

Abbas, the Health Ministry spokesman, told the satellite television channel Al Jazeera that there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.

“The complex now lacks food, water and electricity,” he said. “Intensive care units have stopped working.”

Abdallah Nasser, who lives near Shifa, said by phone that the Israeli military was advancing deep into the city from its southern and northern flanks.

“They are facing stiff resistance, but they are advancing,” he said.

Mohammed al-Masri, one of thousands still sheltering at the hospital, said that from a higher floor he could see Israeli troops approaching from the west. “They are here,” he said. “They are visible.”

Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it’s impossible for everyone to get out.

“We cannot evacuate ourselves and (leave) these people inside,” a Doctors Without Borders surgeon at Shifa, Mohammed Obeid, was quoted as saying by the organization.

“As a doctor, I swear to help the people who need help.”

The organization said other doctors reported that some staff had fled to to save themselves and their families, and urged all hospitals be protected.

CASUALTIES RISE

More than 11,070 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are thought to be possibly trapped or dead under the rubble.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said six people were killed early Saturday in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp that hit a house. The camp is located in the southern evacuation zone.

At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, and 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, Israeli officials say.

Nearly 240 people abducted by Hamas from Israel remain captive.About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.