Middle East News
“What have I done wrong to live without my parents?” 6/11/2006 7:00:00 PM GMT
Hoda Ghalia shrieked for her father as she saw him laying dead on the sands along with five of her siblings.
The five family members were among seven other Palestinian civilians who lost their lives and over 35 who got injured in an unjustified Israeli attack on a beach in northern Gaza.
The Israeli shelling at the coastal area on Friday ripped apart Hoda’s life.
TV footage following the Israeli massacre in Gaza showed Hoda screaming "Father! Father!", symbolizing the devastating impact of the new Israeli "genocidal" and "war crime," as described by Palestinian leaders.
"What have I done wrong that I should have to live without my parents?" the 10-year old girl said as she appeared on AP Television News.
In the background appeared the rest of Hoda’s family, including female relatives dressed in black, all mourning the lost lives of their loved ones.
Five Israeli human rights organisations have called for an immediate halt to the merciless killing of innocent Palestinian civilians by Israeli occupation forces.
It was a weekend picnic- Houda and her 11 brothers and sisters went out with their father, who had promised them a picnic if they passed their end-of-year exams, to enjoy a sunny day at the beach. The family decided to quickly pack and end the picnic after they heard the Israeli fire. But as they stood awaiting a taxi to take them home, the explosive landed in the beach, killing Hoda’s father and five of her brothers and sisters, she said.
The shelling, which wiped out the Ghalia family, also killed the second wife of Hoda’s father, and one other person who was not related to them. But her mother and five other children from the family were only wounded. Seven-year-old Hadeel, Ali Ghalia's daughter from his second wife, is now laying in a hospital bed with shrapnel wounds. She still doesn’t know that she lost both her parents and her brother.
"Since last night I have been telling her that her mother will be coming back and she will be able to play with her brother," Hadeel’s aunt Intisar said. "We want her to get better and we don't want to tell her the truth while she is still sick."
"Hadeel is now an orphan," said Nasreen Ghalia, the girl's aunt. "We want nothing from (the Israelis.) We just want them to leave us alone." Israel has repetitively attacked areas crowded with civilians, killing scores of them, including children, claiming it’s only protecting itself against rockets fired by Palestinian fighters from Gaza.
The U.S. had in many cases endorsed this claim.
Hadeel's 15-year-old half sister, Ilham, was decapitated, and her 16-year-old half brother, Reham, was badly hurt, and he might have both his arms amputated, according to doctors treating him. At the mourning tent for Ghalia family in Beit Lahiya, Eyam Ghalia, 20, the only member of the family who wasn’t hurt in the massacre, described what happened when Israel’s shells hit the beach.
"We started to walk to the place where the taxi would pick us up, and suddenly the missile landed in the middle of where we were," Mr Ghalia said, with signs of shock and grief tainting his features. "My father was behind me and I saw his stomach cut open with the intestines hanging out. I tried to take care of him and I kept calling out to him but there was no response."
Blood stains and ripped shoes, some with flakes of dried flesh on the soles, were still seen in the sand where the Israeli shells landed. On Saturday, President Mahmoud Abbas paid tribute to Hoda's ordeal, denouncing the Israeli crimes, calling it “genocide”.
"What is the crime that she committed while she was watching her family being killed on the beach and screaming?" Abbas said. "Who is responsible for such acts and why are such acts being committed against innocent people?" However he insisted: "We called for peace and we will call for peace. This incident is not going to prevent us from calling for peace."
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Inna Lillahi wa inailahi raj'uun-Verily, to Allah we belong and to Him is our return!!!!
And they say Muslims are "terrorists"! Indeed, this is the greatest terror against innocent people but yet you don't see anyone calling these Israelis "terrorists"! I guess this word is only used towards the Muslims!
May Allah (SWT) protect our dear brothers and sisters in Faith from these terrorists and grant them victory...Ameen!!!
