Gaza- “Did I really survive?” is a question that has haunted Ahmed Hammad since he was recovered – more than two months ago – from under a house whose rubble swallowed up his wife and half of his children, as a result of an Israeli air strike on the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Ahmed answers himself as he recalls that bloody night of last March 6, “I escaped with half my life.” He continues his talk to Tel Aviv Tribune Net, mostly asking questions, “I came out alive from under the rubble, and my child Hadi is still missing… We recovered my wife Amna, my son Muhammad, and my daughter.” Rahaf, what kind of survival and what life would there be without them?”
Ahmed (47 years old) was displaced with his family of 6 members from the city of Khan Yunis last January, following the Israeli ground invasion of the city. He took refuge in his sister-in-law’s house in the city of Deir al-Balah, which consists of two floors and hosts 5 displaced families (32 individuals). The air strike turned it into a pile of rubble, resulting in 23 martyrs, including 13 children.
Graves under the rubble
After about an hour, the ambulance and civil defense teams were able to rescue Hammad, and this was followed by the recovery of his wife, his daughter Rahaf (17 years old), and his son Muhammad (15 years old), who is Mahmoud’s twin, who survived with his sister Raghad (10 years old) by rescuing her from under the rubble after about 12 hours.
Hammad says, “My grief for my wife and my martyred children is on one side, and my grief for Hadi is on one side. He is the only one whom we did not pull out from under the rubble, out of all the martyrs of that bloody night. I do not know whether there is anything left of his little body for me to bury or whether it evaporated from the force of the explosion and fire.” “.
Hadi is not more than 5 years old, and he is one of thousands of missing children, whether under the rubble of their homes that were destroyed by the fire of the occupation forces, or those children who have not yet reached the age of 18 and who were arrested by the occupation forces from various areas in the Gaza Strip that were invaded by land after the outbreak of war on October 7. Al-Madi, and others whose fate is still unknown, according to official and civil authorities.
Hammad and his family were being driven to fate, according to his description. They were forced to move four times since the outbreak of the war, starting from his home in the Western Sattar area in the city of Khan Yunis, passing through the homes of his family and relatives in the west of the city. He says, “When the occupation began to invade Khan Yunis, we decided to leave it under fire.” Through the hallabat (Israeli security checkpoints) we took refuge in Deir al-Balah, and death was waiting for us.”
Hammad survived with nerve and back injury, while his son Mahmoud was injured, and his daughter Raghad suffers from severe injuries in her limbs and needs treatment abroad to be able to return to walking normally.
Hammad has a medical referral to accompany Raghad for treatment abroad, but the storming and occupation of the Rafah land crossing, which is the only outlet for the two Gazans to the outside world through Egypt, prevents them and thousands of wounded and sick people from being able to travel.
According to official data from the government media office, 11,000 wounded and 10,000 cancer patients, and among the wounded and sick are thousands of children in urgent need of travel and treatment abroad.
War on children
On the International Day of Missing Children, which falls on May 25 of each year, the Director General of the Government Information Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, told Al-Jazeera Net, “We want to remind the world that in Gaza – and every day for 8 months – more than 10,000 are missing, most of them children.” And among them are women and men.”
He added, “On this day, pain and sadness are renewed in the souls of our honorable people who lost one or more members of one family during the past months of the genocidal war waged by the occupying state against the Gaza Strip.”
“More than 35,000 martyrs, the majority of whom were children, were killed in this war, and more than 80,000 were wounded, the majority of whom were children. In addition to that, we have more than 10,000 missing persons who are either under the rubble and are among the martyrs, or are missing and whose fate is unknown,” he said. Constants.
According to the government official, among the total number of missing persons are thousands of children, including those who lost their lives as a result of the bombing of homes above the heads of their residents, and who have been under their rubble for months and the specialized crews have not been able to recover them, and among them are those whose communications with their families have been cut off and whose fate is unknown whether they are martyrs or detainees. Or lost, adding that they have many reports from families about missing people, most of whom are children.
For Al-Thawabta, “the issue of missing persons is among the disturbing and painful issues for the families and our people,” in addition to the fact that “the war has left 17,000 children currently living without their parents or one of them, and this is a very large number. The war has doubled the number of orphans in our Palestinian society, which is a tragedy.” One of the countless tragedies of war that is still continuing is great, and children are paying the greatest price, and the reality of the situation indicates that they are not well and they are the weakest and most affected segment as a result of the war of extermination.”
Violating child laws
The head of the International Commission for the Defense of the Rights of the Palestinian People, Salah Abdel Ati, estimates that among the martyrs of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza there are 15,000 child martyrs, in addition to 25,000 wounded children. He tells Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “The occupation blatantly violates all charters and agreements related to children.” “He wages war on our children.”
Of the 10,000 to 15,000 missing persons since the outbreak of war, according to the International Commission’s documentation, more than 40% of them are children, in addition to detainees and forcibly disappeared persons. Estimates indicate that the occupation has arrested 11,000, including 1,000 children, and is still detaining 6. Thousands of them, including 600 children. Abdel Ati confirms, “We do not know anything about the conditions of their detention and arrest.”
Abdel-Ati urges the world to press for the recovery of the bodies of the martyrs and missing persons from under the rubble, to visit detained children and find out the truth about their conditions and liberate them, and to stop targeting civilians in general, especially children.
He says, “The pain of loss among fathers and mothers contributes to establishing a dangerous humanitarian reality that goes beyond all international norms and conventions, the Fourth Geneva Conventions and the Children’s Convention, which guaranteed special protection for children during armed conflicts.”