Sumaya Abu Ajwa had woken up for the Fajr worship along with her two foster daughters, 16-year-old Nuseiba and 14-year-old Retaj, and their mom.
She and the ladies’ mom have been off to at least one aspect when the missiles struck, one in every of them passing between the 2 ladies, Abu Ajwa informed Al Jazeera.
“Suddenly, dust and fire spread everywhere, like it was Judgement Day. I started looking frantically for the girls,” she says tearfully, sitting on a mattress as a result of she has problem strolling.
“I found the younger girl [Retaj] and held her in my arms. Her blood was pouring onto my clothes, but I could sense that she was still breathing,” Abu Ajwa stated, including that she screamed for assistance, for somebody to come back and save Retaj, however the scene was once so chaotic no one was once in a position to assistance.
Quickly next, Retaj succumbed to her wounds.
The seek for Retaj’s heavy sister Nuseiba took longer.
“I went again into the flaming worship room again and again, in search of her, I couldn’t see her anyplace. Upcoming anyone informed me that she was once below the rubble so I went to seem the place they stated.
“When I reached her,” Abu Ajwa breaks indisposed, “I found her and her body had been torn in two.”
Weeping bitterly, she stated she and the ladies’ mom had accomplished the whole thing they might, thru a number of displacements, to store the 4 of them in combination.
Abu Ajwa had mentioned retirement al-Tabin with the ladies, however Nuseiba have been resistant to shed, she stated, as a result of she was once attending Quran categories there and was once happy with her journey in memorising the holy conserve.
“She told us that if we wanted to leave that was fine, she would stay behind in the school. I told her that I had stayed with them throughout the war and wouldn’t leave them now, we’d either make it together or die together, but now they’ve gone on ahead and left us. They died before us.”
The ladies handiest had one want, she added – for the conflict to finish as a result of they “have been scared so many times, displaced so many times, they were so exhausted and had gone hungry so many times”.
The ladies have a 14-year-old brother, Abu Ajwa stated, who have been taken from them when the Israeli military raided al-Shifa Sanatorium the place they have been sheltering on the age.
“The Israelis despatched him north on his personal. We have been very unhappy later however, who is aware of, this may increasingly have stored him, he’s the one hope we have now left.
“Who will call me Mama Sumaya now? I crave those words so much,” Abu Ajwa sobs.