Five sisters killed whilst they sleep

2009/01/01 Operation Cast Lead: Five sisters killed whilst they sleep
At around 10:00pm, on Sunday, 28 December 2008,

electricity was cut to the Jabalia Refugee Camp, located in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The nine children in the Ba’lousha family were all at home with their parents at the time.

Their house was located next door to the Imad Aqel Mosque, in the centre of the densely crowded camp.

The sound of jet aircraft and drones could be heard flying overhead.

‘We could hear explosions and were all terrified’ recalls 35 year-old Samira, ‘I told my girls to go to sleep to relieve them from the tension.

’ Samira also went to her bedroom which she shared with her husband, Anwar, one year old son, Mohammad, and their 13-day-old baby girl, Bara’a.

Several hours later, at around midnight on Monday, 29 December 2008, a missile struck the Mosque, destroying it completely and damaging the surrounding houses, many of which had asbestos roofs. ‘I woke and saw the roof and walls of my house falling,’ recalls Samira,

‘I did not realise what was happening.’

Samira then lost consciousness.‘When I woke,

I looked around and could only see dust. I was covered in stones and sand

; I could hardly breathe.

My husband Anwar was also covered in stones and sand.

I then heard the screams of my baby daughter, Bara’a.

I started removing stones from my body and managed to stand up.

I rushed over to where the cot was and started to remove the rubble.

Bara’a’s cot was upside down and formed a kind of protective tent.

I picked up Bara’a and passed her to Anwar, whose face was covered in blood.

I then looked for Mohammad but could not find him.

A wall had fallen on where his mattress had been.

I then heard Mohammad screaming from under the rubble and started to dig him out.

When I found him his head was covered in blood.’

Samira handed Mohammad to a rescue worker and then went in search of her seven daughters. ‘I went to their bedroom, but there was no room, all the walls had collapsed.

The room where my girls had been sleeping was not there.

The ground was covered with wood, stones and asbestos.

I started to scream.’A neighbour helped Samira to an ambulance and she was taken to Kamal Edwan Hospital to be treated for her injuries.

It was whilst in hospital that Samira was informed that five of her daughters had been killed. The dead girls are:
Jawaher - aged 4 years
Dena - aged 7 years
Samar - aged 12 years
Ekram - aged 13 years
Tahreer - aged 17 yearsThese deaths were the obvious and foreseeable consequence of firing a missile into a densely populated refugee camp.

Bara’a was the only member of the family to escape injury.

On 30 December, a fieldworker from DCI-Palestine visited the surviving members of the Ba’lousha family, who have moved in with relatives 200 metres from their destroyed home. During the visit there was an air raid and an explosion near by.

Anwar looked skywards and started screaming, ‘do you want to kill my remaining children?’ and then he began to weep.

As of 1 January 2009, media reports indicate that 391 Palestinians have now been killed since the start of ‘Operation Cast Lead’ six days ago.

Reports, as yet unconfirmed by DCI-Palestine, indicate that 41 children are among the dead.Please consider sending an urgent appeal to your elected representatives demanding:
An immediate end to Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip and a ceasefire by all parties.
The immediate provision of urgent humanitarian and medical assistance to the Gaza Strip.
The immediate lifting of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip to allow the free flow of goods and services in and out of the territory.
An immediate freeze of the EU-Israel upgrade process.

Any future Action Plan for the upgrade must include clear and measurable human rights benchmarks for which Israel must be held accountable.

For further information please go to DCI-Palestine Urgent Appeal.Read the report of this incident in The Independent