The story of the survival of the child Tawfiq Abu Youssef (5 years old) from a massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip did not last long, as he breathed his last yesterday, Thursday, after a previous announcement of his death and his return to life again.
The events of the exciting story took place on June 8, when Tawfiq’s death was announced and he was transferred to a morgue in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the middle of the besieged Palestinian Strip. But the surprise occurred when he was shrouded, as he returned to life to the astonishment of those around him, according to a medical source and members of his family. .
In this massacre, the Israeli army killed 274 Palestinians, including 64 children and 57 women, while hundreds of civilians were injured, as part of an ongoing war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
The army carried out its massacre to free 4 prisoners who were held by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which announced the killing of 3 other Israeli prisoners in the massacre, which sparked widespread condemnations and criticism against Israel.
This “return to life” did not last more than 6 days, as he died yesterday, Thursday, as a result of the severe injuries he sustained as a result of the Israeli bombing.
A video clip, posted on social media, documented this incident, and shows Tawfiq making his first response after his death was announced.
“He came back to life after being transferred to the mortuary.”
While they were searching for a place for his body among the bodies of martyrs on the ground in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza, the child Tawfiq Abu Youssef moved his arm to show that he was still alive after the massacre committed by the occupation in the Nuseirat camp. pic.twitter.com/2yojqsrJsa— AJ+ Arabic (@ajplusarabi) June 10, 2024
Medical sources at the European Anatolia Hospital said, “The child Tawfiq died of his wounds after suffering a serious injury to the head area in the Nuseirat massacre.”
The sources added, “Tawfiq was injured by shrapnel in his head and pieces of stones lodged inside his brain. Therefore, he was transferred from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis (south), where he underwent several surgeries, but he died.”
Tawfiq is the only child of his family, which lost its two daughters in a previous Israeli bombing that targeted the Nuseirat market, and her eldest son last year due to his cancer and the lack of appropriate treatment under the siege.
Details of the day of the massacre
In turn, Tawfiq’s mother told Anadolu Agency that “the situation in Nuseirat was normal before it turned within minutes into a war zone.”
The mother added, “We did not understand what happened. Suddenly we were surrounded by bullets from all directions, in an atmosphere of terror.”
Strongly, she hugged her last child at that time, and said that he was “very afraid at that moment of the sounds of nearby explosions… This last child is mine, he is my hope in life, and I was keen to protect him.”
Minutes later, a missile targeted a house next to the Abu Youssef family, causing half of their house to collapse on top of them, she said.
She added, “Suddenly the place turned dark due to the smoke of the heavy bombing, so I carried Tawfiq and tried to escape with him.”
The mother felt blood on her hands, so she thought she had been injured, but she could not see anything due to the thick smoke. But a cry for help from her child made her realize that he was injured, so she rushed him to the hospital, she added.
The mother said, “The street was empty except for the sounds of bullets hitting the walls of houses, and the sounds of explosions.”
She explained, “Part of Tawfiq’s brain was outside his head due to the injury, and I walked for a long time until I found a relative who provided me with help.”
The mother moved between Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals to save her child, and while his father took over the task of following him inside the hospital, she returned home.
There, the father was informed from the hospital that Tawfiq had been “martyred” due to the seriousness of his injury, according to the mother.
She continued, “In a phone call, they informed me of Tawfiq’s martyrdom. This was one of the most difficult moments for me, and I only felt myself inside Al Awda Hospital (due to fainting from the shock of the news).”
She added, “When I regained consciousness, they informed me that Tawfiq had returned to life again.”
The mother could not comprehend the shock, so she picked herself up and rushed towards Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to find her child inside the operating room.
Deprivation of life
She continued, “He remained in the operating room for three and a half hours, and after he left, the doctor informed us that he had removed two shrapnel and two stones from the brain, and that he had been transferred to intensive care.”
She concluded by saying, “These are Israel’s goals. He was required to be taken out for treatment so that he can have his right to life.”
Since May 7, Israel has taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah land crossing with Egypt (south), a day after Tel Aviv announced the start of a military operation in the city crowded with displaced people, causing the crossing to be closed to the wounded for treatment.
In total, the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip left more than 122,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens, most of them children.
For the 18th year, Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip, and its war forced about two million of its population, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in catastrophic conditions, with severe scarcity of food, water and medicine.
