Gaza: Maryam Ahmed Ghanem survived the flames that engulfed her home. Her mother did not.
The three year old Palestinian girl was rescued from a burning apartment in western Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike early on October 14, according to local reporting and the journalist who carried her to safety.
A medical source at Al Shifa Hospital told Anadolu that Reem Asaad Awad, 33, was killed in the strike on a residential building in the Rimal neighbourhood.
Two injured people were also brought to the hospital. The attack damaged the apartment and surrounding buildings, triggering a fire that civil defence crews later extinguished.
Palestinian journalist Ali al Jaafrawi said he was at Al Shifa Hospital when he heard an aircraft and then an explosion. He followed the sound to Al Amin building on Al Nasr Street, arriving before ambulance crews.
Inside, he heard a child screaming. He entered the burning apartment, found Maryam and carried her outside, handing her to people who took her for medical treatment, according to his account.
Al Jaafrawi said he returned to search for others but lost consciousness amid the dense smoke. He later learned that Maryam’s father had been killed earlier in the war and that the latest strike had killed her mother.
The rescue prompted condemnation from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which urged US lawmakers to denounce the attack and end American support for Israel’s military campaign.
The strike took place despite the ceasefire in Gaza. For Maryam, survival means facing the loss of both parents after escaping a fire that consumed her home.
