Gaza teenager sees parents, siblings killed after seeking safety in
south
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[October 23, 2023]
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - When the Israeli army told Palestinians in the Beach
refugee camp in Gaza City to flee south because it was safer,
18-year-old Dima Al-Lamdani's family prayed they would escape relentless
air strikes.
But days later, Lamdani was left to identify the bodies of her relatives
at a makeshift morgue in the southern city of Khan Younis. She said she
lost her parents, seven siblings and four members of her uncle's family
in an Israeli air strike.
"They told us to evacuate your place and go to Khan Younis because it is
safe... They betrayed us and bombed us," she said.
She said her family and that of her uncle travelled in two cars across
Gaza, which has faced the heaviest bombardment after the Palestinian
militant group Hamas launched an attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing
about 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages.
Lamdani's family was staying at a temporary shelter in Khan Younis when
she said: "At 4.30 a.m. I was awake and sitting with my aunt drinking
coffee. Suddenly I woke up in the middle of ruins. Everyone around me
was screaming, so I screamed."
Lamdani, the side of her face grazed and bruised, said after searching
for her family members in the morgue on Oct. 17, that only her brother
and two young cousins had survived but had sustained some injuries.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/23/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
"This is a nightmare. It will never be wiped from my memory," she said.
"I had a sister, 16. They wrote my name on the white sheet they wrapped
her body in, they thought it was me."
AID TRUCKS CROSS FROM EGYPT
An Israeli military spokesperson said: "The IDF (Israel Defense Forces)
has been encouraging residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move
southward and not to stay in the vicinity of Hamas terror targets within
Gaza City.
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![](../images/102323PIX/news_o2.jpg)
Palestinian teenager Dima Allamdani, who fled to southern Gaza Strip
with her family to avoid the constant onslaught of Israeli
airstrikes in Gaza City and settled in a shelter that was later hit
by Israeli jets which killed 13 of her relatives, including her
parents, 7 siblings and 4 members of her uncle's family, looks on,
in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 22, 2023.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/23/images/ads/current/countryfinancial_lda_PPP_2023.png)
"But, ultimately, Hamas has entrenched itself among the civilian
population throughout the Gaza Strip. So wherever a Hamas target
arises, the IDF will strike at it in order to thwart the terrorist
capabilities of the group, while taking feasible precautions to
mitigate the harm to uninvolved civilians."
Gaza health authorities said more than 5,000 people have been killed
in Israel's two weeks of bombardment and more than 15,000 have been
injured.
After Oct. 7, Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip,
which is running out of water, food, medicines and fuel for its 2.3
million people.
On Monday, aid workers and security sources said a third convoy of
aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt bound for Gaza.
Rafah is the main crossing in and out of Gaza that does not border
Israel.
U.N. officials say about 100 trucks a day are needed to meet
essential needs in Gaza. On Saturday and Sunday, 34 trucks passed
through.
Humanitarian deliveries through Rafah began on Saturday after
wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on
the Gaza side of the border had left relief materials stranded in
Egypt.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Aidan Lewis, Editing by
Michael Georgy and Janet Lawrence)
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