NGO worker killed alongside young family by overnight Israeli airstrikes, colleagues say
Israeli bombardment killed a Palestinian human rights worker, his wife and their two young daughters in northern Gaza early Thursday, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), a Gaza-based NGO.
Ihab Marwan Kamal Faisal, 33, his wife Hanin Jamal Al-Dahdouh, 29, and their two daughters – Reem, 6, and Najma, 3 – were killed by the attack in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, the PCHR said. The family had been seeking refuge at the house, the group added.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
Months earlier, two of Faisal’s brothers were killed by Israeli bombing and two of his wife’s brothers were killed in another bombing in Gaza City, the organization said.
“Words cannot describe my feelings and the feelings of my colleagues towards this ongoing brutality against our people and against our colleagues,” Raji Sourani, a lawyer and the director of the PCHR, said in statement.
“He was a man of good character and commitment and was dedicated to his work in the darkest and most dangerous circumstances,” he added. “The brutality of the occupation is evident in every detail of our lives, killing our children and killing our dreams.”
Disabled children seeking refuge in residential block killed by Israeli airstrike, residents say
More than a dozen Palestinians wrapped in shrouds and blankets covered the floor of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, after Israeli forces unleashed a wave of aerial attacks overnight.
CNN footage from the medical facility, in northern Gaza, showed relatives, including elderly men, kneeling over the bodies of the deceased. In some scenes, blood stains can be seen seeping through the cloths. In another scene, rows of Palestinian men line up to perform Janazah, the Islamic funeral prayer.
At least 53 bodies – including 18 women, 18 children, 14 men and three elderly people – have arrived at Al-Ahli hospital since the ceasefire and hostage release deal was reached on Wednesday night, according to the hospital director, Dr. Fadel Naim. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN they “conducted strikes on approximately 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip” over the past day.
Ali Asaliyah, a man displaced from Jabalya, just north of Gaza City, told CNN his brother-in-law was killed by bombardment on a residential block in Sheikh Radwan, in Gaza City. Three girls and a boy with disabilities were also killed, he said.
“They were martyred through no fault of their own, completely powerless,” Asaliyah told CNN. “From the moment they announced a ceasefire, the Israelis heavily bombed residential blocks… We are all targeted in Gaza. We are all civilians. We don’t have weapons, nor are we affiliated with the resistance,” he said.
Abu Hani Alloush, who is elderly, told CNN from the hospital that he was sitting at home on Wednesday evening when his house came falling down on him shortly after it was struck. “We are waiting for the truce, hoping those who are missing and those displaced will return,” he said. “People are dying every minute… We consider them martyrs, and we say, ‘indeed we belong to God, and indeed to Him we return.’”
Women cry over the body of a loved one killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City the previous night outside the morgue at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on Thursday
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