It has been six days since Dina Alalami heard from her household in Gaza Metropolis after she obtained a textual content message from a relative informing her that they had been alive.
The 33-year-old mom of two, who has been residing in Qatar’s capital Doha for the previous 5 years, has no concept whether or not her sister, two brothers-in-law, two nephews and three different family members are nonetheless alive or have fallen sufferer to Israeli bombardment that has killed greater than 11,500 folks in Gaza.
“On Friday [November 10], they decided to leave their house and head south because the Israeli tanks had gotten closer and were surrounding the area,” Dina instructed Al Jazeera on Thursday.
“They took the decision because they said they wouldn’t survive the night if they stayed. We called the Red Cross and asked them to help secure a safe passage for them.”
However the Purple Cross and Purple Crescent stated they had been unable to assist.
The household left their houses on November 10 in the course of the four-hour pause – a day after Israel introduced a every day four-hour window to permit Palestinians to flee from the north to the south.
At about midday, the household left the home waving white flags. Dina’s two sisters, who’re married to 2 brothers, had left their houses on the primary day of the conflict to remain at their in-laws’ villa, additionally in Gaza Metropolis.
Dina was speaking to her youngest sister Rulla on the telephone because the group cautiously moved ahead when immediately screams pierced the air. Their different sister Lina had crumpled to the ground, blood soaking by means of her shirt after an Israeli tank fired at them.
Rulla dragged Lina, getting her so far as the doorway of the Bakri constructing on Shuhada avenue, and tried to manage first support. She noticed a gunshot wound to her sister’s chest.
However because the Israeli tank fireplace continued, Rulla had no selection however to go away her and run inside. Rulla’s husband Bashar Khayal was shot in his hand, and his sister Dalia was additionally wounded.
Behind them, Bashar and Dalia’s grandmother Feryal was mendacity immobile on the road, killed.
Rulla instructed Dina precisely the place they had been and begged her to get in contact with the Worldwide Committee for the Purple Cross (ICRC) to save lots of them. The constructing was behind al-Zaytoun pharmacy, Rulla stated, by the Abbas intersection.
Dina known as the ICRC. They instructed her they couldn’t go to the realm.
‘Worst feeling in the world’
The subsequent day, on Saturday, Dina acquired the information she had been dreading. Lina had died, her physique nonetheless on the entrance of the constructing.
Dalia had additionally been killed, succumbing to her wounds.
Lina’s two younger boys, four-year-old Mohammad and nine-month-old Majed, had been amongst these trapped contained in the constructing with their father Tareq Khayal, their grandmother Dalia, their aunt Suha, Rulla, and Bashar. That they had no meals, water or electrical energy.
Their telephone batteries dying, Suha was in a position to ship Dina one final message: “We are alive”.
Dina flew to Cairo, Egypt, over the weekend, the place her father lives alone, and was joined by her brother who lives in Dubai.
“Just the thought of those two young boys not having water to drink or food to eat, the thought that they could die of dehydration or starvation…” her voice trails off, her breath catching.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world, this helplessness,” she stated. “My sister got killed, and her body is still lying on the street. There’s no respect for the dead, and that alone burns our hearts.”
Greater than 11,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip since October 7, nearly all of them ladies and kids. The healthcare system has collapsed because of the whole siege imposed on the territory by Israel, and on Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the largest hospital within the strip, al-Shifa, following by means of on their earlier threats regardless of sufferers and 1000’s of displaced folks sheltering there.
Dina final visited Gaza again in the summertime for Rulla’s wedding ceremony to Bashar. The 2 had been engaged for seven years and tied the knot in August after Rulla completed her medical research in Egypt.
“My sisters are six and seven years younger than me, so we were like best friends,” Dina stated.
“I wish I was with them right now. I wish we would either die or live together.”
