Palestinian man mourns wife, children wiped out by Israeli strikes

By Mohammad Majid

GAZA, Palestine (AA) - On the second day of Eid Al-Fitr, a Palestinian mother took her five children to visit her brother's family residing in the Shati camp, west of the Gaza Strip.

Within hours, the Eid gathering ended in a bloody massacre.

An Israeli air strike targeting the house claimed the lives of 10 members of the family.

The mother, Maha al-Hadidi died along with her four children. Omar, an infant, was the only survivor among her children.

Her sister-in-law also died along with her four children.

"The occupation forces targeted my brother-in-law’s three-story house without prior notice in the middle of the night,” the father, Mohamed Al-Hadidi told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Hadidi, who is mourning the loss of his wife and children, is currently at the Al-Shifa medical complex in the blockaded Gaza Strip taking care of Omar, who sustained a foot injury.

"My children were safe at home and went to greet their uncle with their mother wearing Eid clothes, but the Israeli devil devoured them," he said.

Al-Hadidi recalled that the bodies had burnt to ashes by the time rescue teams arrived at the site.

"My 34-year-old wife, Maha Abu Hatab, my sons Suhaib, Abdul-Rahman, Osama, and Yahya, were martyred," Al-Hadidi said, adding that all his children were aged between 6 and 14.

He identified his sister-in-law as 30-year-old Yasmine Abu Hatab and her four children Yousef, Bilal, Maryam, and Yamen, all aged between 5 and 10.

The grieving father said members of the rescue team heard the loud cries of Omar from under the rubble and were able to rescue him.

Al-Hadidi said he was at the hospital trying to identify the bodies of his children and his wife not knowing that Omar survived.

“I could not believe it when they told me that there was a wounded child who had been pulled out from under the rubble,” Al-Hadidi said. “I knew immediately that it was my beloved son Omar. I instantly prostrated to God thanking Him for saving my son.”

According to eyewitnesses, the paramedics and civil defense personnel found the child tightly holding onto his martyred mother’s chest with an injury in the foot when the rescue operation was ongoing. They described the view as “tragic” and a “war crime”.

Since May 10 when Israeli started air strikes on Gaza, dozens of women and children have been killed and entire families have been wiped out.

Israeli bombings have killed at least 200 Palestinians with children accounting for at least 60 of the deaths. The attacks have injured more than 1,300 people and left behind a massive trail of destruction across the territory with media offices and health centers among the structures that have been targeted.

The recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara