Abbas wants to adopt shelling survivor

By Khalil Assali
Gulf News Report
Jun. 12, 2006

"Don't leave me alone mama, papa, take me along with you, I cannot live alone without you all. Please dear brother, sisters, don't go and leave me behind."

Repeating these words amid tears, Huda Ghalia was the lone survivor of Israeli shelling that had killed her entire family in an outing that was supposed to be pleasant, leisurely and away from daily chores.

But destiny had decided otherwise for Huda's family on the shores of the Mediterranean sea.

Only ten-year-old Huda, a fourth grade student in UNRWA school survived, making Palestinians and the world at large weep as she looked upon her father lying on the sand, mistaking his death for sleep until she saw blood seeping from his wounds, only to realise that she had lost him forever.

It was only a few hours earlier that her father had stood beside the hen and bird coop the family kept in the town of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, which was not his usual routine and he had looked at the feathery creatures and asked Huda to take good care of them, as if he felt the necessity of handing over their responsibility to someone else.

Huda who lost her father, mother, sisters and brother in a second, appeals to the world to witness the new massacre created by the Israeli army, even as the family was spending a peaceful time at the seashore celebrating the end of the children's scholastic year.

It all happened after the picnic lunch and Huda's father was taking a nap when a piece of shrapnel tore into his body.

One moment, light laughter filled the air and the next moment Ilham (7), Hanadi (2), Sabreen (3), Haithem (one year), her mother (26), her father(45) and her step mother (25) were all killed.

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared his intention to adopt Huda, and so did a Kuwaiti businessman, as the child's shock resembled the tragedy of the Palestinian people.

Dr Eyad Sarraj, Director of the Gaza Psychological Health Organisation told Gulf News that Huda suffers post-traumatic symptoms and will need treatment to be cured of this huge shock.

He added that 97 per cent of Palestinian children show signs of psychological disturbances and depression as a result of the Israeli military operations which means the situation is exceedingly dangerous and will need years of rehabilitation to get these children out of their present condition.

A report issued by this organisation stated that 94 per cent of Palestinian children have witnessed funerals while 95 per cent have seen live shooting and 62 per cent have seen family members and relatives shot or killed.

After her family members were massacred, Huda would not be able to bring herself together soon.

Huda said that she "was not being able to sleep while her siblings laughter ring in her ears day and night, and her mother's image moving from one room to the other haunts her every moment. She can almost touch her father's hand patting her."