When Israel attacked hungry children

Yasmine al-Akkad had given birth to her child a few weeks earlier.

When she heard a loud explosion last Saturday (July 13), Yasmine immediately grabbed her baby. She then picked up her other daughter, a two-year-old, and ran through al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.

Yasmine survived the massacre in which over 90 Palestinians were killed, but what she experienced left her deeply traumatized.

“The worst thing I saw was my brother-in-law’s body hanging from a tree,” she said. “It was split in half.”

A child named Abd al-Rahman was hungry.

His mother could not cook for him, so she told him to go to a community kitchen in al-Mawasi where food was distributed.

Abd al-Rahman is still alive after the massacre – but his limb had to be amputated.

Many others who joined him in the food line were killed.

A mother was preparing food for her children when she suddenly heard explosions.

“Everything went black,” she said. “I couldn’t see anything because there was so much smoke and dust.”

There were more explosions. The woman began to scream and search for her family.

First she found the body of her little niece.

The woman saw numerous corpses all over the area where she lived in a tent.

The woman went looking for her husband and two children, aged 7 and 9. She could not find them.

She assumes they were killed.

“What did these hungry children do to be killed in such a brutal way?” the woman asked.

“Earthquake”

Maha Ahmad described the Israeli shelling as so heavy that “the area shook as if there had been an earthquake.”

Many of the dead were dismembered into so many pieces that their relatives were either unable to identify them or could only do so with difficulty.

Maha’s house in the city of Khan Younis was destroyed during the current genocidal war.

They had been displaced to Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. When Israel launched a ground offensive in Rafah in May, it declared al-Mawasi a “security zone.”

“The whole world knew that al-Mawasi was a safe area, but unfortunately it is not,” Maha added. “It has become the most dangerous area for the displaced people.”

Rami Labda was looking for water in al-Mawasi on Saturday when the Israeli attack began.

He rushed to his family’s tent and found it empty. His family had planned a trip to the seaside that day.

The people in the surrounding tents were not spared either.

“I found three of my neighbors injured and another dead,” Rami said.

Amal Akar was displaced from an area east of Khan Younis to al-Mawasi a few weeks ago.

On Saturday, her nephew Fayez was out shopping when Israel attacked.

“Everyone called to check on him,” Amal said. “But he didn’t answer.”

After about an hour, Amal heard that Fayez had been injured. She and other family members visited him at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

“The scene there was frightening,” she said. “There were mothers screaming and doctors running around trying to save the patients.”

Amal learned that Fayez had bled heavily. When he died, a doctor took care of him.

“It was a big shock,” she said. “Since this war began, we have lost more than ten people in our (extended) family.”

“The repeated attacks on al-Mawasi are causing fear among all the displaced people there,” she added.

“People want to leave the area but cannot find another place to go. There is great destruction in all parts of Gaza.”

Fedaa al-Qedra and Ruwaida Amer are journalists based in Gaza.

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