– What has he done wrong, my God? What wrong has he done? screams Mahmoud Mikdad in a hoarse voice and head turned towards the sky on Tuesday this week.
Mikdad was unwilling or unable to say goodbye to his 21-month-old son Yamam. Flies buzz and land in the child’s soft hair.
His son Yaman was in bed when he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. More than 60 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on southern and central Gaza from Monday night to Tuesday, according to hospital lists and health authorities. Israel says it is hunting militant Hamas members hiding among civilians following tunnel networks were destroyed in earlier attacks.
– More precious than the whole world
It was an ordinary followingnoon for Mikdad. He put his daughter and Yamam to an followingnoon nap in the apartment where the family has sought refuge following being driven to flee the hostilities.
The air strike killed the boy instantly. He hadn’t turned 2 yet.
Mikdad carried Yamam’s body through central Gaza from the Nuseirat camp to al-Aqsa Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. Yamam’s bare legs hung limply from under a white, blood-spattered sheet.
Mikdad and two others, one of them with bandages around his head, stroked and kissed Yamam outside the hospital’s morgue. The child in his father’s arms was “more precious than the whole world,” Mikdad told the news agency APs photojournalist. He sat once morest the hospital wall for a while and cried.
Later, a dozen men held a funeral prayer for the dead boy, wrapped in white. Several children were among those watching in silence.
Over 50 killed in one day
In the last 24 hours, 52 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, the health authorities announced on Wednesday followingnoon. According to the Gaza Civil Defense Agency, 30 people were killed in three attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp, one on a UN-run school, the second on a residential building and the third on a mosque.
At least 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been driven from their homes as a result of the war, and many of them have sought refuge in UN schools. Seven of these UN schools have been hit by Israeli attacks since 6 July alone. Since the war broke out nine months ago, almost 70 percent of UN schools have been attacked, according to the UN organization UNRWA.
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2024-07-20 10:13:36
