To view original article, published by Maan News Agency on the 29th December, click here
Gaza – Ma’an – No sooner had a Gazan mother run away with her baby boy and two other baby girls seeking shelter did an Israeli airstrike kill her five daughters before she could return and transfer them, as well.
The girls were identified by Palestinian medical sources as Ayah, Eiman, Ikram, Tahrir and Samar Ba’lousha. They were killed after an Israeli airstrike hit their family home near the Imad Aqil Mosque in Jabalia, which was subsequently destroyed.
Dozens of houses in Jabalia have been destroyed and several victims remain under debris since shortly before midnight on Saturday; Palestinian rescue workers are still trying to get them out.
Israeli air raids also killed three children from the Al-Absi family in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, as well as a brother and his sister from the Kishku family in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
On Saturday, an Israeli missile claimed the lives of seven students from a vocational training center affiliated with the United Nations on Al-Muhafadha street in Gaza City while they were waiting for a school bus to take them home.
Three other Palestinians from the Ar-Rayyis family were killed in front of their own shop on the same street. A father and his son were later killed in the same area.
Seeking shelter for Gazan children became impossible as the strip lacks fortified places to protect Palestinians from air raids, unlike nearby Israeli towns.
On Monday, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, confirmed that at least 51 innocent civilians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the airstrikes began on Saturday, purportedly to root out armed groups that have been firing barrages of rockets toward southern Israeli targets.
Since Saturday, two Israelis have been killed and about 20 others are injured from projectile attacks.
Gaza is the most densely populated place on the planet, with nearly 1.5 million Palestinians contained to a 20 square meter strip on the Mediterranean coast. Palestinians living in Gaza have been without food, electricity or water in their homes for several weeks.