‘Her body had been torn in two’: Tales from Israel’s attack on al-Tabin
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/8/25/echoes-of-a-massacre-tales-from-israels-attack-on-al-tabin-school
Sumaya Abu Ajwa had woken up for the dawn prayer with her two foster daughters, 16-year-old Nuseiba and 14-year-old Retaj, and their mother when two Israeli guided bombs fell on the al-Tabin School, killing more than 100 displaced Palestinians.
“I found the younger girl and held her in my arms. Her blood was pouring onto my clothes, but I could sense that she was still breathing,” Abu Ajwa told Al Jazeera, adding that Retaj died of her wounds a short time later but the search for her big sister continued.
“I went back into the flaming prayer room over and over, looking for her. I couldn’t see her anywhere. Then someone told me that she was under the rubble, so I went to look where they said.
“When I reached her, I found her, and her body had been torn in two.”
Israeli military issues another evacuation order for Deir el-Balah
The Israeli military has issued a new order to displaced Palestinians in a designated block in eastern Deir el-Balah to immediately evacuate ahead of an expanding ground invasion.
Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman of the Israeli military, told Palestinians the area is “currently considered a dangerous combat zone”.
At least 100,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, many not for the first time, from Deir el-Balah in the past few days, with some not even able to find space to set up tents as the Israeli military keeps shrinking the tiny Gaza Strip.
Palestinian women and children sit in the back of a vehicle as they flee Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on August 21
Palestinian patients flee Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
Palestinian patients are fleeing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of nearby areas.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital still providing services: Health Ministry
The Gaza Health Ministry says the hospital in Deir el-Balah is still working and its staff is staying on the premises to provide services to the sick and wounded despite Israeli orders to evacuate the nearby areas in central Gaza.
“The Israeli military announcement has caused panic among patients, some of whom have left out of fear that the hospital would be raided like other medical facilities,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Despite this, medical staff are staying put and fulfilling their obligations, at a time when there are 100 patients remaining in the hospital, seven of whom are in the Intensive Care Unit."
