A young girl with a short ponytail steps over shattered rubble, flames around her, trying to escape.
The five-year-old child in the viral footage, which showed the aftermath of an Israeli strikes on a Gaza City school sheltering displaced Palestinians, was Ward Jalal al-Sheikh Khalil.
Ward, who has spent nearly half her life surviving Israel’s war on Gaza, was fleeing the bombed classroom at the Fahmi al-Jerjawi school after witnessing her mother and four siblings burn to death.
“I received a phone call after midnight telling me the school where my brother and his family had taken shelter was bombed,” her uncle, Iyad Muhammed al-Sheikh Khalil, told Middle East Eye.
“I was horrified and wanted to rush there immediately, but I couldn’t. The bombing was still intense and it was completely dark.”
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He waited until dawn to reach the site.
“The scene was horrific,” he said. “Smoke was still rising from the classrooms. The scent of blood was everywhere. People were completely burned.”
At around 1am, Israeli warplanes dropped at least three bombs on the school, killing more than 35 people, including at least 18 children and six women, according to survivors and eyewitnesses.
Iyad’s brother and his family had been sleeping on thin mattresses they had carried through repeated displacements when the strike hit their classroom.
“There were no mattresses left, only body parts and flesh scattered everywhere,” Iyad said.
‘The biggest problem is not only that her entire family was killed, but that she is fully aware of what happened’
– Iyad Muhammed al-Sheikh Khalil, girl’s uncle
“We started searching for the bodies, but they had been torn apart, so we started looking for body parts instead,” he said.
“We found legs and arms, just pieces like that.”
The 53-year-old man was later informed that his brother and youngest niece, Ward, had been transferred to the Baptist Hospital in the east of Gaza City.
“I rushed to the hospital and found Ward along with her 16-year-old brother, Seraj, both were injured,” he said.
“Ward was fully aware of what had happened. She immediately told me which members of her family had been killed.”
Ward had witnessed the deaths of her mother and five siblings: Abd al-Rahman, 17; Muhammed, 14; Maria, 13; and Silwan, 11. Her father remains in the intensive care unit.
“She told me that she saw them burn to death and she couldn’t do anything. She tried to escape the fire before some men arrived and pulled her out,” Iyad continued.
“Ward was the one who identified the bodies of her mother and brother after they were transferred to the hospital. We couldn’t recognise them because their bodies were charred and disfigured.”
‘Guessing’ the victims’ identities
At the hospital, Iyad tried to “guess” the identities of some of the bodies based on small details, like “a piece of clothing or the shape of a hand or fingers.”
He then left his brother in the intensive care unit and took Ward out of the hospital, as she had sustained only minor injuries.
“As soon as she arrived at the school, she saw her sister’s slippers and broke down in tears. The biggest problem is not only that her entire family was killed, but that she is fully aware of what happened.” Iyad told MEE.
“Ward’s eldest uncle was killed last month. Her mother has now been killed, and her father remains in critical condition. She is left with only me and her 16-year-old brother.”
‘Flesh everywhere’: Israeli bombing of Gaza shelter leaves children charred
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Amid the intensified bombardment across the Gaza Strip in recent days, civil defence crews have been forced to prioritise rescuing those believed to be still alive under the rubble.
The bodies of the missing are often left for families to recover themselves.
“Now I have returned to the school to look for the rest of them, for their body parts, but we still couldn’t find anything,” Iyad continued.
“We cannot even grant them a dignified burial.”
According to the Palestinian Civil Defence, around 10,000 people have been reported missing since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, most of whom are presumed dead under the rubble.
But Iyad is now more concerned with how he can “delete the scene” from his niece’s memory.
“She is devastated. Her situation is indescribable. I don’t know how she will recover, or if she ever will,” he said.
“She didn’t just survive a bombing. She didn’t just lose her entire family. She witnessed them being burned to death and had to run for her life, leaving them behind.”
