Gaza – On the eve of the second anniversary of surviving a massacre committed by the Israeli occupation that claimed the lives of her family except her father during the "Sword of Jerusalem" battle in 2021, the child, "Suzi Riad Ashkentna", escaped again the death of a certain person who stood at a "zero distance" from her, when Israeli warplanes bombed, on Friday evening, an apartment opposite the home of her relatives in the Al-Nasr neighborhood, northwest of Gaza City.
On the morning of the current Israeli aggression, which continues for the fifth consecutive day, Riad took his 9-year-old daughter Suzy to her grandmother's apartment, hoping for an atmosphere of "entertainment and safety" that Suzy might find with her uncle's family and children who live in the same apartment, but he did not know that it brought her closer to the risk of death.
Suzi rose up in terror at the time of an Israeli air strike that destroyed an apartment separated by one block from the apartment of her sixtieth grandmother, "um Raed", and it turned out to be an assassination targeting a member of the Military Council of the Jerusalem Brigades, who is responsible for its operations unit, the martyr Iyad Al-Hasani.
The child Suzy took refuge in her grandmother's house in search of safety, followed by the horror of the Israeli air raids (Al Jazeera Net)
"Doomsday"
The flames emanating from the force of the explosion flashed Susie's eyes, dust and black smoke covered the house, and she raced with her grandmother and uncle's family to descend the stairs of the building from the fourth floor to the street, pursued by horror. In a few words, the child told Al Jazeera Net, "I thought that the bombing on us. I'm good, thank God."
Riad says Suzi has been living through difficult times since her mother and siblings were killed during the last war, and is terrified by each new Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Riad was on his way to Suzy when a huge explosion occurred meters away from the building that houses the apartment and targeted Al-Hasani inside, and says, "I had a strong fear for Susie, she cannot bear another shock (..) She threw herself in my lap in the street, repeating: I'm afraid. I'm afraid of dying."
The scene was terrifying "as if it were the Day of Judgment", and according to Father Riad's description, "people are fleeing their homes and spreading in the streets, the targeted apartment is on fire and smoke plumes are rising, and rubble and glass fragments are scattered around."
She was pulled out of the rubble and survived with her father.
But the martyrdom of her mother and brothers and the brutal bombing of the occupation left psychological shocks that made her talk and eat.
Learn about the story of baby Suzi Ashkentna: pic.twitter.com/JvadpgIhkE
— AJ+ Arabic (@ajplusarabi) June 10, 2021
Escape from the clutches of death
"It's the same scene that Suzy went through two years ago, and I don't know how much it will affect her," the father says, adding, "She hasn't gotten rid of the painful memory yet, and every traumatic event will delay her recovery."
The grandmother says um Raed for Al Jazeera Net, "We were 10 individuals inside the apartment, and we felt that death is close to us with the explosion (..) The shelling was fierce and close, as if it was targeting us. Dust and smoke filled the apartment, made us lose our vision, then we started screaming at each other, and scrambled with the neighbors towards the street."
This raid brought back to the family the memory of the massacre on Al-Wahda Street during the Battle of the Sword of Jerusalem. In the massacre, whose second anniversary passes on 16 this month, Suzi lost her mother Abeer (29) and her four siblings: Dana (9), Yahya (5), Lana (6) and Zain (4), in an Israeli air strike that destroyed the <>-storey house above the heads of its inhabitants. Suzy and her father were the only survivors, having spent hours buried under the rubble before being pulled back by rescuers.
The residential building where the military commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, Iyad al-Hasani, was targeted (French)
Death and destruction toll
Suzy's tragedy was great with the loss of her mother and siblings, but she became lucky enough to save her life twice, while Israeli rounds of bombardment killed 72 children in the 11 days of the Battle of the Sword of Jerusalem two years ago.
In the current aggression, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in an inconclusive tally that the continuous Israeli bombardment led to the death of 10 children out of 33 martyrs so far, and the injury of 147 people, including children, during the past four days of the current aggression.
Most of these children were killed and injured in their sleep, in night raids carried out by Israeli warplanes, killing them in their beds and in their bedrooms.
Official data issued by the Government Information Office, which is run by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, indicate that during 5 days of the current aggression, the occupation forces completely destroyed 15 houses and partially and severely damaged 940 housing units, 49 of which became uninhabitable.