Family mourn five-year-old Palestinian girl killed in air strike
The family of the five-year-old Palestinian girl killed on Friday in the Shujaiya neighbourhood north of Gaza has spoken to Middle East Eye of their shock and grief.
Alaa Qaddoum had been playing with friends in the vicinity of Abu Samra Mosque as worshippers inside prepared for the Asr afternoon prayer.
Then Israeli fighter jets bombed the area, killing her among others, making Alaa one of the first victims of Israel's latest bombing campaign on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
"Alaa was an innocent five-year-old playing in the street with her brothers and cousins. What did she do to be killed?" a cousin, Abu Diab Qaddoum, told MEE as he waited outside the intensive care unit at Al Shifa Hospital, where Alaa's father, Abdallah Qaddoum, was being treated.
Abdallah, 30, sustained serious injuries in the strike and is now receiving critical care.
Alaa was killed immediately when shrapnel hit her forehead, chest, and right leg, according to Mohammed Abu Selmeyeh, director of Al Shifa Hospital.
"They are the light of my eyes," their 28-year-old mother, who did not wish to give a name, said as her eyes welled up with tears.
The pair's aunt also couldn't hold back her tears speaking to MEE. "Her blood hasn't dried yet," she said as she held Alaa's blood-splattered pink and white shirts.
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