Gaza medic says baby survives Israeli strike that killed 10

The attack on Abu Haya's house in Khan Younis claimed the lives of three-month-old Reem's parents and her eight siblings

By AFP

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Reem Abu Haya, a Palestinian girl who survived an Israeli strike that killed her entire family, cries as she is held by a relative at Nasser Hospital, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. — Reuters

Published: Tue 13 Aug 2024, 4:24 PM

An Israeli strike killed 10 members of a Gaza family in the territory's southern district of Khan Younis on Tuesday, leaving only one survivor — a three-month-old girl, a medic told AFP.

"Ten members of the Abu Haya family were killed in an Israeli strike on Abassan in east Khan Younis," the medic from Nasser Hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"There is only one survivor from the family, a baby girl named Reem. She is just three months old," he said, identifying the 10 other members of the family — two parents and their eight children.

The girl, wrapped in a black cloth, stirred strong emotion in the courtyard of Nasser Hospital, a place now known for grieving families searching for dead or wounded loved ones.

"This little girl was pulled out of the rubble. Her whole family is dead. Who will take care of her now?" asked Ibrahim Barbakh, a resident of Khan Younis, as he held the baby.

Rescue workers, witnesses and medical sources reported further Israeli air strikes and shelling in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, some of them deadly.

The war in Gaza was sparked by an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 39,929 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.