|
|
Rescuers pull the body of a toddler victim of the Israeli massacre. (Reuters)
|
CAIRO — The latest Israel massacre in the
southern Lebanese village of Qana, which triggered a global wave of
condemnations, made international headlines on Monday, July 31, with
many heartbreaking stories of the survivors.
"I want to see them. I want to hold
them," a tearful, devastated Hala Shalhoub, whose two daughters,
ages 1 and 5, were killed in the Israeli attack told The New York
Times.
Israeli warplanes pounded Sunday, July 30, a
three-storey building on the edge of Qana where two extended families,
the Shalhoubs and the Hashems, took refugee from the relentless
Israeli offensive.
Up to 60 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children,
were killed in the attack, less than a kilometer from the mass grave
of 110 Lebanese civilians killed in 1996 when Israel bombarded their
UN shelter.
When rescuers went to dig up the slain children,
some bounced on their shoulder as might have done on the father's
shoulder.
"When they found them, they were all huddled
together at the back of the room," Naim Raga, the head of the
civil defense team, told the Guardian.
"Poor things, they thought the walls would
protect them."
Nightmare
|
|
A Red Cross rescuer checks bodies of civilians killed in Qana. (Reuters)
|
Muhammad Qassim Shalhoub, who lost his five
children, wife as well as 45 members of his extended family, recalled
the haunting nightmare.
"Around one o'clock we heard a big
explosion," he told the British daily.
"I don't remember anything after that, but
when I opened my eyes I was lying on the floor and my head had hit the
wall. There was silence. I didn't hear anything for a while, but then
heard screams."
Shalhoub tried to help his terrified children but
could not due to the non-stop Israeli strikes.
"Don't be scared. I will come. There was blood
on my face. I wiped it and looked for my son but couldn't find him.
"I took three children out - my four-year-old
nephew, a girl and her sister. I went outside and screamed for help
and three men came and went back inside. There was shelling
everywhere. We heard the planes. I was so exhausted I could not go
back inside again."
His relative, Ibrahim Shalhoub, also was unable to
help the young children.
"It was dark and there was so much smoke.
Nobody could do anything till dawn," he said.
"I couldn't stop crying, we couldn't help
them."
Sleeping Angles
Rescuers pulled out intact corpses of slain
children with crushed lungs, the Guardian said.
"God is great," a policeman muttered as
the body of a 10-year-old boy was carried away on a stretcher.
The boy lay on his side, as if asleep, but for the
fine dust that coated his body and the blood around his nose and ears.
Bodies of the young victims were all lined up on
the ground - a baby, two young girls and two women.
In a nearby ambulance, the young victims were
stacked on top of one another to make space for the many to come.
A boy and girl, both no more than four years old,
had been placed head to toe. They were still wearing their night
pyjamas.
The dead bodies were in strange shapes. Several had
open mouths filled with dirt and with their faces puffy.
Nour Hashem, 13, had a heart-breaking experience.
"We were all sleeping in the same room, my
friend, my sister and my cousin," she said in a shuddering voice.
"I pulled the rubble off my mother and she
took me to another house, then she went looking for my brothers and
sisters. But my brothers and sisters didn't come and my mother didn't
return."
