PERSONAL: Tayseer Al Daba, 17, recounts the loss of his sister in an Israeli attack

Record ID: 1752590

  • Title: PERSONAL: Tayseer Al Daba, 17, recounts the loss of his sister in an Israeli attack
  • Date: 20th November 2023
  • Summary: KHAN YOUINS, GAZA (NOVEMBER 20, 2023) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING / MUDDY PUDDLE MUDDY PUDDLE / FEET WALKING PAST TENTS / PEOPLE WALKING ALONG INTERNALLY DISPLACED 17-YEAR-OLD TAYSEER AL-DABBAH AND ANOTHER MAN SECURING TENT THREAD TIED AROUND WRISTS OF HAND SECURING TENT CAMERA VIEW ENTERING TENT / PEOPLE SEATED YOUNG GIRL SEATED IN TENT, SMILES AT CAMERA THREAD TIED AROUND Y
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2023 15:39
  • Keywords: GAZA IDP ISRAEL PALESTINIANS WAR
  • Location: KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
  • City: KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA
  • Country: Palestinian Occupied Territory
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
  • Reuters ID: LVA001962620112023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Tayser Al Daba, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy recounted on Monday (November 20) the night he lost his sister in an Israeli attack on the Bahrain School in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza.
    His father, Ali Tayseer Al-Dabbah, had divided his family into two halves. Tayseer, his mother and his 12-year-old sister Aya were in Gaza City. The other half of the family were located in Khan Younis. They all wore thread bracelets around their wrists as a form of identification.
    "If their head is cut off or something, I can identify them from this (holds out wrist with thread tied around it). So this, if God forbid something happens, I can identify them using this," Tayseer told Reuters in an interview.
    Tayseer recounted the night that Israeli forces attacked the Bahrain School where him, his mother and sister were staying, in Tal Al-Hawa, Gaza.
    "We were in the school - there was nothing happening, they were just parked on the door - she went upstairs to the bathroom, her and her daughter, they went into the bathroom and finished and came out of the bathroom and they were fired on from the school's fire escape. They shot her here (pointing to his chest)," he said.
    "One of the girls came downstairs and found me, she told me hurry, your sister is upstairs, she's been hurt. I went upstairs and there was gunfire coming at me from here and there - the Israelis - they got me in my chest and here (points to his arm). There was nobody to help me, I wrapped my arm and came here. This is the day before yesterday," he added.
    Aya Al-Dabbah died in that attack.
    Following the attack, Tayseer made his way to Khan Younis on foot.
    About 240 hostages were taken during a deadly cross-border rampage into Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to invade the Palestinian territory to target Hamas. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas assault, according to Israeli tallies, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year-old history.
    Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children, by unrelenting Israeli bombardment.
    The United Nations says two thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been made homeless.
    (Production: Arafat Berbakh, Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, Dina Selim)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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