Gaza

Israel’s air strikes on Gaza in retaliation to the Oct 7 Hamas attack have been wiping out generations of families. A Palestinian man, while talking to BBC, showed a photo with several kids sitting at a table, claiming that most of them have now been killed in the Israeli offensive.

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Ahmed al-Naouq, a Palestinian NGO worker who moved to London four years back, took out at an old selfie with his nieces and nephews and said that most of the children in the photo are now dead. In total, Ahmed lost 21 of his family members, including his father, three sisters, two brothers and 14 of their children.

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Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza

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Since Israel Defence Forces (IDF) started air strikes in Gaza, more than 11,000 Palestinians have lost their lives, including children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The air strikes began after the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, in which about 1200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 taken hostage. 

Israel says that it is bombarding Gaza with the intention of rooting out Hamas completely. IDF has accused Hamas of deliberately operating from the heart of densely populated Gaza and using civilians as human shields. 

Cost of war

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Ahmed’s story is one of those many unknown stories of innocent civilians killed in the Israel-Hamas war. 

Ahmed, as he now looks at the photo with the children of his brother and sister at his father’s home, is reminded of the good times that might never come back. 

Gazans who lost their lives

Ahmed’s brothers built their family homes above their father’s, like many Palestinians. Bombing a home like theirs would mean wiping out a series of generations in one fell swoop. 

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His sister Aya had gone there to take shelter with her children after her own apartment was damaged by an air strike. His other sisters, Walaa and Alaa, were there too with their children. The house was in the centre of Gaza in the town of Deir al-Balah, an area that had never been targeted before. They thought it was safe.

Ahmed moved to London four years ago to work for an NGO and hasn't been home since. The last time he saw the children together was over a video call. 

Ahmed knew 13-year-old Eslam the best, who was the eldest among the lot. He was killed alongside his little sisters - Dima (10), Tala (9), Nour (5) and Nasma (2), as well as his cousins Raghdad (13), Bakr (11), Sarah (9), Mohamed and Basema who were eight and Abdullah and Tamim who were six. 

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A week after the bomb struck the home on Oct 22, communications from Gaza were almost entirely cut off as Israel escalated its attack, and Ahmed couldn't contact anyone. 

When the signal was reconnected two days later, he learned that another one of his nieces, Malak (11) had also died. She was found alive under the rubble but succumbed to her injuries later in the hospital. 

(With inputs from agencies)

Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.