The Tabatibi threw themselves onto the roads of Gaza to flee the war: in less than a month, Israeli army bombs fell twice in the place where they had found refuge, killing around sixty members of family. The latest strike occurred Thursday night in the densely populated al-Daraj neighborhood of northern Gaza City, killing at least 25 members of the Tabatibi family, a relative said. to the AFP.
In a narrow street, the six-story building where they lived was still standing, as best it could, the balconies barely retained on the facade, the ground floor charred, the interior strewn with rubble. “We didn't hear a missile falling or anything, we were all asleep,” said Khaled al-Tabatibi, a surviving family member, through tears. “Our house, my sisters, their children, their daughters, all are martyred, all are in pieces. »
Ziyad Dardas, a neighbor, is in shock. His brother was injured in the strike. “It’s madness,” he lamented, accusing Palestinian and Israeli leaders of bearing responsibility for the tragedy. “I ask the (Palestinian) Authority, the leaders of Hamas: Isn’t that enough? » The dead and injured were taken to al-Chifa hospital in Gaza, according to media reports. Hospital largely destroyed during a recent Israeli military operation.
Death before fasting
The family is bereaved for the second time in less than a month. On March 15, the Tabatibi gathered in Nuseirat, in the center of the small Palestinian territory, to eat together on the occasion of the first Friday of Ramadan. An airstrike hit the building where they were while the women were preparing the meal, killing 36 family members, witnesses told AFP at the time.
The Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip provided the same assessment, attributing responsibility for the strike to Israel. The Israeli army then indicated that it had targeted two “terrorist agents”, without giving further details.
“They bombed the house while we were there. My mother and my aunt prepared the sahur meal taken at dawn before the fast. “They all fell as martyrs,” Mohammed al-Tabatibi testified at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where the bodies of his loved ones rested.
The Hamas Health Ministry estimates the number of deaths so far in the Gaza Strip at 33,634, mostly civilians, due to the air and ground offensive launched by Israel in retaliation for the bloody Hamas attack. on its soil on October 7. That day, Hamas commandos carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, resulting in the death of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a report established by AFP based on official Israeli data.