When Israeli’s Stack  of Targets Is Child’s Smile

Written by: Mohammad Shaaban, Gaza-based Journalist

There are frequent power cuts for hours at a time in occupied Palestine and on that terrible day, Dunia was about to light a fire for the traditional baking oven to prepare bread for the evening meal. But then as unpredictably as it had gone, the electricity came back on. It could soon go off again as well, so  Dunia rushed to send her 11 year old daughter Dima, to bring the small electric oven from next door, her aunt’s house. 

The child Dima Asalia, 11 years old, did not know of the hatred the atrocious Israeli drone keeps to her. She  only carried an electric oven in her soft hands on the way to her simple home to be the coming victim of the Israeli occupation warplanes attack on the civilians of Gaza. 

The child Dima responded to her mother’s request to bring the small oven from a nearby neighbor’s house, her aunt’s, ten meters away from the family’s home, east of Jabalia refugee camp. She walked for only a minute before a reconnaissance plane targeted her with a missile that turned her immaculate body into pieces.

Before the drone had murdered Dima, her mother, Dunia, wanted to light the furnace, which is a “traditional baking oven”, to prepare bread for her family. However, when electricity returned back to the town, she rushed to send her daughter to bring the electric small oven from her married sister’s house, before a new power cut. 

At sundown, Dima’s father was on the roof of his house under the vine of grapes, exploring the road linking his house to the house of his married daughter. Saad caught a glimpse of Dima carrying the small oven, but it soon disappeared after smoky dust and terrifying flame fell over the area after the Israeli drone bombed her.

Saad said that when he saw the bombing, he immediately went down towards the area of the explosion. At the time he was running towards his daughter, Saad called the  ambulance and informed them of the bombardment. They asked him about the victims in the area, he replied in shock, “I don’t know. 

“The mother of the martyr child, Dima Asalia who was carrying the small electric oven, was waiting for her to come to prepare bread for the family of nine in a time where the crisis is intensifying by the barbaric Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip. Unconsciously, she cried at the top of her voice that her daughter had been killed without even seeing her.”,  said Abu Ibrahim, the uncle of the little girl Dima, who was murdered by an Israeli drone. 

” His family members who were stunned by the terrorizing sound of the explosion, like other neighbors and people in the area, came out to see the body parts of the little girl, Dima, scattered  on the ground while the remnants of the electric oven were still in place.

As soon as the dust disappeared, until the signs of the calamity began to appear in front of her grieving father’s eyes, Dima’s body was lying on the ground, painting the sand with her blood. Saad painfully shouted to his brothers to take her in his private vehicle to the Indonesian hospital, northern Gaza. 

Saad hurried to evacuate the rest of his sons, daughters and wife from the house, anticipating another airstrike by the criminal occupation warplanes, as the people of the Gaza Strip are accustomed to whenever a missile from a reconnaissance plane targets a house.

“What did my little child do to turn into pieces by the save Israel missile? Didn’t the super powered Israeli occupation, which has the most developed technologies, distinguish that she is a child?”, asked saad.

The family members wondered if what the murdered child carried in her hands was a real danger to the security of the Israeli entity, according to the excuses they use to target Palestinian innocents claiming  that the protect themselves as a self defense. Her family was anger and heartbroken at the murdering of their little angel and continues crimes committed against the Palestinian people by the occupation aircraft daily.

“For what sin did they kill this child? Is it because of her smile that does not leave her lips even when she is a martyr. Sleep and rest our angel, Dima, you have become a martyr. We ask God to grant patience to your broken head oh Dima, you have broken our hearts.  God doesn’t forget you.”

Saad added, “Dima was not the first child killed by the brutal Israeli occupation. The Israeli warplanes   target families, civilians and homes in a barbarous manner during this war. We did not witness such levels of cruelties in past wars.”

Pain and grief dominated Dima’s family and the participants in her funeral, expressing their anger towards the systematic Israeli occupation that targets  civilians.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, This brutal aggression has led up to murdering 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, 39 women and 17 elderly. In addition, the aggression has resulted in injuring 1900 civilians with various wounds, including 90 serious injuries and 500 injuries in the upper parts, 155 of them are to the head and neck. As of now, 560 children are injured, 380 are women and 91 are elderly people.