These stories are not fiction. They are the
gruesome reality created by the Israeli war
machine. The streets of Gaza tell the stories of
hundreds of children. Family members who have
escaped death have not been able to escape the
trauma of it all. These are some of their
stories.
Gaza – Who
in the world would believe that Israeli
warplanes would pursue a child who had survived
their initial bombing only to kill him 10 days
later? This is the reality of the war on Gaza
and the story of nine-year-old Ibrahim al-Dawawsa,
who lived with his family in the Sheikh Radwan
neighborhood north of Gaza City. Last Friday
around noon, a drone dropped a missile that blew
his head off, killing him immediately.
Ibrahim
went out to perform the Friday prayers for what
turned out to be the last time ever after he
heard the call to prayer at al-Nour al-Mohammedi
Mosque near his home. He had showered and worn
his new clothes, as if he sensed that his moment
of death is near and wanted to die pure.
This is
the Israeli war machine that has no regard for
children or humanity. Very simply, it dropped
its bombs over the heads of people flocking to
the mosque. When a missile hit Ibrahim,
worshippers rushed to where he was only to find
him drowning in his own blood.
As soon
as Ibrahim’s mother heard the sound of bombing,
she screamed putting her hand on her heart, and
called after him:
“Ibrahim, where are you my
son?” As though a mother is destined to feel the
loss of her child before anyone delivers the
news to her.
She
ran, as she told Al-Akhbar, to the window
to look for a sign of her son who had gone out
seconds ago, only to see him carried by the
neighbors. She screamed: “Ibrahim is gone!”
Ibrahim’s father, Abu Jamal, went to the
hospital to see his son’s corpse. He found him
on a bed with his skull broken, half of it gone.
He started to scream in front of the cameras:
“Shame on you, what did the children do to you
to kill them like this. Oh God!”
The
grieving father told Al-Akhbar that
Ibrahim is the oldest of three sons. He also
said that Ibrahim was hit in his left arm about
10 days before his death, when Israeli warplanes
fired at children in al-Shati refugee camp on
the morning of Eid al-Fitr.
“That
day, Ibrahim survived miraculously and we
thanked God so much for his safety,” his father
added.
The
50-something-year-old father said that after
Ibrahim was wounded the first time, he became
very worried about his children’s safety,
especially Ibrahim. He made them stay at home
and prevented them from going out unless it was
absolutely necessary. “But he was destined to
die a martyr 10 days after his initial injury.”
Eyewitnesses said the missile hit Ibrahim
directly and next to him was his friend Ahmed
who suffered serious injuries. They were hit
after the initial attempt to reach a truce that
was supposed to last three days failed.
From
the beginning of the war, it was obvious that
the children were paying a heavy price because
they were being targeted directly. Casualty
statistics indicate that the number of children
killed by Israel in Gaza is over 430, in
addition to thousands more injured.
In
another story, Israel hit another nine-year-old
child in the face, making him blind in a split
second, without regards to his young age. He is
Mohammed Badran from al-Nusairat refugee camp in
central Gaza. He now lies in an intensive care
unit in al-Shifa Hospital in the hope that
doctors might be able to restore his beautiful
face that had been mangled by an Israeli bomb.
Mohammed’s
nine-member family went to sleep on the night of
July 30 after having dinner to the sound of
continuous shelling. A missile interrupted the
stillness of their home, hitting the room
holding seven children, and destroying it over
their heads.
All seven
of them were wounded but Mohammed’s injury was
the worst, in terms of the kind of injury he
endured and how serious it was. According to the
head of the Reception and Emergency Department
at al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Ayman al-Sahbani,
Mohammed is having difficulty breathing. He is
still on a respirator, “in addition to the fact
that he lost his eyesight and the ability to
speak.”
Sahbani
said the child is waiting for a permit for
treatment abroad given the critical condition he
is in. The doctor said Badran’s case is one of
the worst that they’ve had to deal with during
the war.
Mohammed lost his right eye because the shrapnel
hit his eyes. But his mother is hoping he will
regain sight in his left eye even though the
doctors informed her of the seriousness of his
condition and the impossibility of treating him
inside Gaza due to their modest capabilities.
When
medical staff brought his 17-year-old sister
Imane to stay by her brother’s side in one room,
she held his hand and started crying. He could
not see her but he held her fingers tightly.
After
searching for Nidal Badran, Mohammed's father,
they found out that he was hit too and had to
undergo several surgeries. The doctors said his
condition was very critical but hours later,
they announced his death. And so Mohammed lost
his father too, the man who loved him and cared
for him the most in this life.
As for
his mother, she is busy caring for her seven
wounded children whose injuries range from
lacerations to the nerves to breaks and burns.
She told Al-Akhbar: “The children were
dreaming of Eid al-Fitr, instead they woke up to
death. Why all this barbarity?”
An
eyewitness recounted the story of another child
who was killed in al-Shati refugee camp. He was
struck while in front of a swing-set on the day
of Eid al-Fitr and then brought to hospital. The
doctors noticed that his fingers were tightly
shut. When they opened his hand, a small coin
appeared. According to his friends, he had
intended to use it to pay the swing-set owner
when his turn came.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment