by Abdel Qader Sabbah and Sharif Abdel Kouddous at Drop Site
“Every time we wake up in this nightmare—they surprise us with the nightmare of returning to war.”
NUSEIRAT REFUGEE CAMP, GAZA—Dr. Sami Jabr stood on the wreckage of the Abu Dalal family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, just hours after it was bombed. They had been his neighbors. Piles of rubble and uprooted trees were all that was left. Clothes and mattresses and other remnants of life lay mixed in with the smashed concrete.
“I was starting to fall asleep when, Boom! A succession of bombs targeted the house of our neighbors, the Abu DalalA family—our loved ones and friends. It was a massacre. A massacre. A massacre. We went out and found no one. Only body parts and dismembered bodies. There was no one left alive…there was a child without a head. Scenes that break your heart,” Jabr told Drop Site. “We had nothing to do with any of this. What is the cause for all of this?”
At least eleven members of the Abu Dalal family, including four children, were killed in the twin bombing of their home on Tuesday evening, part of a massive wave of Israeli airstrikes and tank fire across the enclave overnight that marked the bloodiest episode in Gaza since a so-called “ceasefire” went into effect on October 10. Israel killed at least 104 Palestinians, including 46 children, in less than 12 hours of bombardment. More than 250 were wounded, including 78 children.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk denounced Israel’s attack saying, “…