- Title: GAZA: Children pay heavy price in Gaza's war
- Date: 6th August 2014
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (AUGUST 6, 2014) (REUTERS) (AUDIO AS INCOMING) EXTERIOR OF SHIFA HOSPITAL IN GAZA CITY POSTER ON HOSPITAL ROUNDABOUT OF BOY HOLDING A SIGN IN ENGLISH THAT READS "I LOST MY FAMILY, I'M ALONE NOW" VARIOUS OF HOSPITAL LOBBY HOSPITAL SIGNS PEOPLE GATHERED IN HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF INJURED CHILD SITTING ON CHAIR (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WOUNDED CHILD, YASMIN AL BAKIR, SAYING: "I was helping my mother. Next thing I knew I woke up in the hospital, I asked my aunt, where is mom, where are my brothers and sisters, then she told me what happened." AL BAKIR'S BANDAGED LEGS AND ARM (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WOUNDED CHILD, YASMIN AL BAKIR, SAYING: "Mom went to heaven, she and my two sisters. One was going to the first grade, and the other, a small baby, almost three months old."
- Embargoed: 21st August 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Gaza
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Conflict,General,Health,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7M5T22QXHK1UMHE1HV41F92T0
- Story Text: All 11-year-old Yasmin Al-Bakri remembers is that her mother was baking bread.
Then she woke up in a hospital bed in Gaza to discover that both legs and her right arm were in bandages and she was suffering severe burns and fractures after her house was hit by an Israeli air strike. She also learned that she had lost most of her family.
"I was helping my mother. Next thing I knew I woke up in the hospital, I asked my aunt, where is mom, where are my brothers and sisters, then she told me what happened," Yasmin said in the hospital.
Yasmin survived, but figures issued on Wednesday by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, showed that 419 Palestinian children have been killed in the nearly month-long Gaza war. That compares with 350 children who died in Israel's three-week ground offensive in the enclave five years ago.
Yasmin said that her mother and her two sisters were killed, along with her uncle and her cousin when an Israeli missile hit their house two days ago.
"Mom went to heaven, she and my two sisters. One was going to the first grade, and the other, a small baby, almost three months old,"
she said.
In another bed in Gaza's Shifa hospital, 18-month-old Mohammed Wahdan cries.
Originally from the town of Beit Hanoun near Gaza's northern border with Israel, the family took shelter in a United Nations school after their home was bombed. But the school was shelled and 17 people seeking refuge there were killed.
"We had fled to the schools, first they struck the schools, then we fled to a rented home and we stayed there, they struck it while we were asleep, at 12:30 at night, it was targeted. Their mother died, my uncle was wounded, his leg was amputated, my aunt and her young daughter also died - 12 people from my family died and 11 people were wounded," said Ahlam Wahdan, Mohammed's cousin.
Israel says it was firing at Palestinian militants.
The Gaza health ministry says 1,869 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians have died. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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