Ward Khalil focuses her eyes on the camera as she recalls the horrors she has gone through.
She recounts the Israeli airstrike early on Monday that claimed her mother, two of her siblings, and 33 other people as well as the massive fire that she discovered when she awoke and realized my mother was dead.
People all over the world have been shocked by the violent attacks against Gaza by six-year-old Ward, her small body silhouetted against the flames following the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City.
Ward’s brother and father both survived the attack, but they are both still in the hospital.
When Israeli fire struck the school, which had been providing shelter for a number of families, including many children.
“I made my way out of the fire so I could get away.” The ceiling fell on me as I was inside the fire. The entire ceiling sank. Ward recalled the blazing fire, and Ward’s voice was loud. “See? She showed the injuries to the camera, “My arm is burned here.”
They were martyred, Ward sobbed as she described the events that occurred to her family. God, forgive them.
As rescue workers and distraught relatives search the rubble and burned clothing for survivors, footage taken from the school after the attack shows blood-stained walls and charred mattresses lying on the floor.
After seeing a picture of Ward online, her uncle, Eyad al-Sheikh Khalil, rushed to the school.
He referred to the images of Ward being comforted by rescue workers close to the school, her hair being dulled by the ash from the fire, and “I was looking at the pictures journalists were posting, and I saw a photo of Ward with the Civil Defence.”
What do you anticipate a child to experience when they leave a war like this, say you? eyad posed a question. She will obviously experience mental suffering. We are all mentally ill.
A survivor who was rescued from the rubble with her son told rescuers, “It was indescribable.” “Body parts, burned bodies, and burning smells.” Our hearts have died, I tell God. We’re exhausted and shaken. Enough”.
Since Israel’s war on the enclave in October 2023, displacement people have been crowding into schools in Gaza. Many of these schools are UN-affiliated.
At least 29 civilians in the Bureij refugee camp, including children and women, were killed on May 7 when Israeli forces twice targeted a single school that had sheltered 2, 000 Palestinians in the same day.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza’s school buildings have been directly hit by Israeli fire since October 2023, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. UN satellite-based assessments show that 95% of Gaza’s schools have suffered damage, rendering the majority of the buildings unusable.
In an update released after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School, UNRWA stated that UN-run shelters are now “overwhelmed with displaced people desperately seeking safety.” Additionally, it was pointed out that the Israeli-imposed three-month siege on the territory had increased the suffering of the population in Gaza.
Source: Aljazeera
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