Tears in his eyes, Mohammed al-Sabbagh shouts into a mobile phone, urging his niece on the other end to “be strong” as she remains trapped under rubble in Gaza.
The call was made near the start of a three-day ordeal for the girl, 15-year-old Hala Hazem Hamada, who was finally rescued on Tuesday after a deadly encounter with Israeli soldiers that claimed the lives of six relatives including her parents.
The bloodshed began on Saturday, when Israeli troops descended on the residential complex where Hala’s family, originally from northern Gaza, had sought refuge outside the territory’s southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli military had said it was raiding “terrorist infrastructure” in the area and taking suspected “terrorists” into custody.
Hala told AFP that soldiers had called out on a loudspeaker asking residents to leave, but before she and her family could do so, “the house started collapsing on us”, leveled by bulldozers.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
“Snipers targeted everyone in the family except my sister and me,” she said.
“My sister Basant told me, ‘I’m scared, save me. I can’t move. The rubble is on my feet, and my father is on my leg. I can’t move’.”
Then Basant went silent, leaving Hala alone to wait out the long hours before her rescue. Basant, 19, was among the six dead.
