"The boy was dead, limp and bloodied on the floor of a morgue, the latest casualty in Gaza. But his father could not let go. He's sleeping. He'll wake up now. There's nothing wrong with him. He's fine, Yusuf Zawara said Saturday. I'm just cleaning his face. He's sleepy. He didn't sleep all night because of the bombing. There was dust in the bereaved father's hair and blood on his clothes. As he knelt over his son in Shifa Hospital, deep in denial, the process of death moved on."
"Get up! he said. He scolded. They hit you with a missile. You couldn't escape? Run. People, run! Why didn't you run away? It was too much. He finally bent over his son, cheek to cheek. Then he addressed the boy's cousin. He reached for the 13-year-old and shook him. Sulaiman, get up so we can get some wings and grill them! the man said. Get up, get up, get up, my nephew! Come on, get up, why are you dying?!"
A 15-year-old boy and his 13-year-old cousin were killed by an Israeli strike while searching for firewood. The boys were about 500 meters from the Yellow Line in an area Israel had said was safe. Their father, Yusuf Zawara, refused to accept his son's death and tended the body in Shifa Hospital, repeatedly pleading for him to wake. Gaza has no central electricity since the early days of the war, and many people shelter from the cold in tents or bombed-out buildings. The Israeli military said it targeted militants who crossed the Yellow Line and planted explosives, denying the victims were children. Gaza's Health Ministry reported over 480 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]