SAFA — For several minutes, eyes across Gaza City turned toward the sound of heavy bombardment coming from the west. But for Safiya Hammouda, 31, her three children and other displaced Palestinians sheltering there, the bombardment was all around them.

Israeli warplanes struck the area around 17 times amid sustained gunfire from quadcopter drones, turning it into what residents described as “scorched earth.” Safiya’s only shelter was a tent, torn by bullets and set ablaze by flames and shrapnel from an Israeli strike.

Inside the surgical ward at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Safiya lies with second-degree burns on her arms and feet and less severe burns on her face. She had raised her arms to shield herself from the flames after an Israeli strike hit a civilian vehicle in front of her tent, setting her shelter and a neighboring tent across the street on fire.

Shrapnel tore through the area at around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday. According to local reports, an Israeli special force had infiltrated the area near Al-Katiba Square in western Gaza City in an attempt to abduct a security commander. After the operation was reportedly exposed, Israeli warplanes launched a series of strikes as the force sought to withdraw, causing heavy casualties.

Water Jugs

As Safiya lowered her arms, the pain from her burns began to set in. Flames were still raging around her.

Then she saw her 15-year-old son, Abdullah, carrying two water jugs he had just filled from a water truck parked outside the tents before the attack. Children and adults had been passing the jugs from the truck to the tents. The truck would later help residents extinguish the flames before the fire could spread further.

Before a second strike hit the area, neighbours placed Safiya in a car and rushed her to the nearby American Hospital. As the vehicle passed through the area, another strike landed close by. She and the others inside survived what she described as a miracle.

Her other son, 11-year-old Yazan, had been carrying an empty water jug. He reached the tent of his aunt, Asmaa, who stood in shock as she saw blood soaking his clothes. He had been shot in the chest by a quadcopter drone.

In a weary voice, with burns covering her face and her arms wrapped in medical gauze, Safiya recounts the attack to Felesteen newspaper. Tears run down her burned face as she describes the attack she survived and a wound far deeper than those on her skin.

“I was in the tent, washing two carpets with my children. We had finished the first one before the water truck arrived. When it came, my children went to fill the water jugs so we could wash the second carpet. Then the quadcopter started firing. I began looking for my daughter, but I couldn’t find her. Then an Israeli strike hit a car passing in front of our tent.”

Unable to move one of her arms because of the pain, Safiya continues from her hospital bed as a woman beside her gives her water.

“At the moment of the strike, shrapnel and flames came flying towards me. I shielded my face with my arms, and they were burned. Then I turned to the other side and found my son dead. He had been trying to get into the tent when shrapnel struck him, killing him instantly. I couldn’t move, so some young men came and carried me away. On the way, we nearly died when another strike landed beside us.”

Her voice choked with tears as she recalled what life inside the tent had looked like only moments before everything changed.

“We were happy, washing the carpets together with the children. Abdullah, Yazan and their sister asked if they could wash the second carpet so I could rest.”

The place Hammouda left behind was no longer what it had been. Her son Abdullah was killed. Yazan was wounded. Safiya herself was burned. Their neighbour was also killed.

In a matter of moments, death and injury had torn through the tents where displaced families had sought shelter.

Bloody Details

At the hospital, Safiya is accompanied by her sister-in-law, Asmaa Hammouda. One image refuses to leave Asmaa’s mind: her nephew Yazan arriving at her tent with a gunshot wound to his chest.

His seven-year-old sister, Jowan, sat beside her, terrified by the drone fire directed towards the tents, followed by the explosion and shrapnel that tore through the area.

Asmaa told Felesteen: “I started screaming for people and asking for help. In the first minutes of the attack, no one could move or help anyone. I called my brother and told him his child had been injured. He picked him up and ran towards the American Hospital. Then I went towards the tent and found my nephew Abdullah lying on the ground, dead. His head was inside the tent while the rest of his body was outside, meaning he was struck as he was trying to escape the bombardment.”

Despite the bombardment and gunfire, Asmaa moved from tent to tent searching for her brother’s wife. Safiya, however, had already been taken to the hospital.

Asmaa described what happened next:

“It began with intense gunfire directed at the tents. Then the shooting stopped, and there was an explosion. Flames from the blast spread to my brother’s tent, while other flames reached the neighbours’ tent. My brother’s neighbour was calling for his son to come inside when he was struck in the neck by shrapnel. He remained in intensive care for four hours before he was pronounced dead. I saw people using the water truck to put out the fires. Had it not been there, the disaster would have been even greater.”

She continued: “I found my elderly father sheltering behind the water truck. He survived, and he helped put out the fire.”

The family buried 15-year-old Abdullah while his mother remained in hospital battling the pain of her burns.

When Safiya regained consciousness, Asmaa and other female relatives at her bedside tried to delay telling her that Abdullah had been killed. But Safiya repeatedly asked about her son, and eventually the family told her the devastating truth.

Yazan remains in intensive care in moderate condition, while Jowan is staying with her father.

Yesterday, the entire family was together inside one tent. Today, they are scattered between a cemetery, a hospital and a tent after an Israeli attack tore the family apart.

Source : Safa News