Gaza’s Story, Aziz’s Life Under Rubble: “I Saw My Mum and Dad Bleed to Death”
by: Mohammad Shaaban, MINA’s Contributor From Gaza
“I know that I am the only survivor, because I saw my mother and father bleed to death in front of me.” This is how the child Aziz Al Kulk, who lived many hours under rubble, tells his uncle after the murder of his mother, engineer Doaa Al Hatta, his father, lawyer Ezzat, and his two brothers Zaid, 8, and Adam, 4. Aziz is the last eyewitness to the massacre committed by the occupation against his family, which now impacted him for the rest of his life.
The night of Sunday, May 16, was one of the most difficult nights witnessed by the residents of the besieged Gaza during the violent and intense Israeli occupation aggression on the city.
After 6 days of brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza, the residents of Gaza had lived a few hours of peace. Suddenly, the noise of the Israeli occupation warplanes began to grow and the people of Gaza anticipated the barbaric and confused Israeli occupation actions. At midnight, the occupation launched dozens of intense and terrifying raids in separate areas throughout the city.
The criminal Israeli occupation warplanes targeted the homes of the Al Kulk and Abu Al Auf families, near the Shanti bakery, in Al Wehda Street in the center of Gaza City, which resulted in dozens of murdered and injured innocents. They also bombed a restaurant in the same residential area.
The criminal Israeli occupation warplanes bombed the building where the child Aziz and his family lived in Al Wahda Street without prior notice, and destroyed it while they’re inside. Aziz, 10 years old, is the only survivor of his family after his mother, father and two brothers were murdered by the brutal Israeli raids.
People were running to anywhere, looking for a safer place far away from the terrifying bombing near to their houses. Within a few minutes, the Israeli occupation planes fired more than fifty successive devastating missiles, and the child started screaming from the window to tell everyone that the warplanes had come. He did not know that they had come to kill him.
Aziz recounts the details of the terrifying night before the damage of their only home, saying that when the bombing began, he rushed terrorized to sit among his family. His father was on his right side, hugging his brother Zaid, 8 years old, and his mother on the left, and her child Adam, 4 years old, embracing her, and Aziz was in the middle. His mother and father were trying to protect him.
Aziz adds, “(The raids) approached us, and the roof of the house fell over our heads, and I said to my father: We will die, don’t worry Dad, we will go to God and live in peace there” He continues describing the image of his family under the rubble and says, “I saw my father and mother’s heads bleeding and they were injured because of the violent devastation”.
It is worth noting that Al-Wehda Street is one of the most vibrant areas in the city, full of shops, companies, associations and schools. The place is known for its high population density, which is full of life that has suddenly turned into a ghost town.
The Israeli warplanes bombed the building in which Aziz lived and the house of their neighbors, the Abu Al Auf family, and successively bombed the streets leading to the house and destroyed them completely. The Civil Defense crews, ambulances and medical personnel could hardly reach the place to rescue them.
In the morning, dozens of civilians and civil defense crews tried to recover the bodies, or even part of them, from under rubble for twelve uninterrupted hours. Some of the people still called from under the rubble, while some others lost their voices and gradually faded.
The innocent child Aziz, 10 years old, remained among his family, who died, for more than 10 hours under the rubble. He could hear his mother’s suffocated voice until she fell silent. Aziz remained alone after the voices of his mother and father disappeared, and he realized that they have passed away.
Aziz started screaming to let the people know that he is alive. People could hardly hear his voice and rush to rescue him and recovered him from under the rubble alive.
Aziz was recovered from under the rubble to see his two brothers and his parents dead bodies on the ground. He repeatedly asked himself, “Why have they been murdered? What was their fault?”
Children, women, and civilian facilities are used as the bank of the Israeli occupation targets due to the occupation failure to suppress the free Palestinian resistance. The killing of innocent children and women is still regular behavior, amid a painful international silence.
According to local sources, the Israeli occupation warplanes launched more than 100 raids, in various parts of the besieged Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death and injury of a number of citizens, while others were still missing under the rubble.
As a result of the brutal Israeli occupation warplanes targeting of the civilian houses and buildings in Al Wehda Street that tragic night, 42 Palestinian souls were murdered, including 16 women and 10 children, and 50 others were injured with various wounds, most of them children and women.
The Israeli occupation aggression on the besieged Gaza began on May 10, after thousands of Israeli settlers and soldiers stormed the courtyards of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which led to violent confrontations between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation forces that spread to all parts of the country .
This brutal aggression has led up to murdering 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, 39 women and 17 elderly. In addition, the aggression resulted in injuring 1900 civilians with various wounds, including 90 serious injuries and 500 injuries in the upper parts, 155 of them are to the head and neck. As of now, 560 children are injured, 380 are women and 91 are elderly people.(A/MS/R1/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
