Father’s Heartbreak: Israeli Soldier Sets Fire to Tent with Disabled Daughter Inside, Says Gaza Resident
Palestinians return to their homes following the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Jabalia area in the northern Gaza Strip on 31 May 2024 (Khaled Daoud/APAimages via Reuters) / via MEE
Muhammed Ismail al-Hweihi froze in shock when he saw an Israeli soldier set fire to the tent where his daughter, Duaa, was inside. Duaa, a 34-year-old with disabilities, had been separated from her father just minutes before.
Hweihi and his family had set up the tent in the courtyard of a school that had become a shelter in Jabalia, northern Gaza. But when Israeli soldiers started shooting and storming the school during a three-week assault in May, Hweihi had to flee quickly. Unable to carry Duaa, who couldn’t move or speak due to cerebral palsy, she was left behind in the tent. Soon after, a soldier poured gasoline on the tents and set them on fire.
“We watched as the flames engulfed it,” Hweihi said, describing how his daughter was burned alive while heavy gunfire surrounded them. “I felt my heart and brain burning.”
Before this tragic event, Hweihi had moved from shelter to shelter with Duaa for months, constantly fleeing Israeli attacks. Duaa depended on her father for everything, as she had lost the ability to move or communicate. Despite his age, Hweihi carried her everywhere.
At first, they found shelter in a school in Jabalia, but it was also bombed. Eventually, they moved to another UN-run school, but the attacks followed them. Many families like Hweihi’s had to set up tents outside due to overcrowded classrooms.
In May, during a second Israeli ground assault on Jabalia, the situation worsened. On the morning of May 15, gunfire erupted, and an Israeli sniper shot and killed two people in the schoolyard. In the chaos, Hweihi ran for shelter, but couldn’t carry Duaa. Soldiers entered the school, separated the men and women, and set the tents on fire, including the one where Duaa was lying.
For ten days, Hweihi couldn’t return to the school. When he finally did, there was no trace of Duaa’s body. “I searched through the rubble, but Duaa was gone,” he said.
During the attack on Jabalia, Israeli forces “destroyed almost everything,” according to survivors, residents, and local reporters after the army left in late May.
Entire neighborhoods were wiped out, most homes were destroyed, and important things like water wells, the main sewage pump, power poles, and phone lines were ruined. The main market was flattened, two hospitals were raided by Israeli soldiers, a UN clinic that helped thousands was burned down, and a street with several schools was completely wrecked.
Witnesses said the Jabalia refugee camp was left “unrecognizable” and could no longer be lived in.
Jabalia is the biggest of eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. Before the war, it was home to more than 116,000 people officially registered with Unrwa (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), though the real number was probably much higher.
Refugee camps like Jabalia were first set up in 1948 to temporarily house Palestinian families who were forced to leave their homes by Zionist militias during the war that created Israel, an event Palestinians call the Nakba, which means "catastrophe" in English.
Jabalia is only 1.4 square kilometers in size, making it one of the most crowded Unrwa camps.
Earlier this week, Israeli forces launched another attack on the camp, bombing it heavily again and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and shelters.
Source : MEE