by Sanaa Kamal
GAZA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- All of a sudden, Toqa al-Dalo, a Gaza-based girl, lost her best friend Mayar Ezz el-Din, who was killed during an Israeli strike that attacked her family's house on Wednesday.
"I did not know that it would be the last time I see her when we met a few days ago," the 10-year-old girl told Xinhua, holding a small notebook that Mayar gave her.
Toqa suffers from severe depression due to the painful loss of her best friend, said Toqa's mother Alaa Abu Aisha, adding she didn't know "how to treat her daughter and make her accept the current situation."
On Tuesday predawn, Israeli fighter jets and unmanned drones carried out simultaneous and surprise attacks against buildings and military facilities belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in the Gaza Strip, killing 21 Palestinians, including three PIJ leaders, women and children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
Mayar, Ali, and their father Tariq Ezz al-Din were among the dead.
Jamal al-Zebda, Ali's best friend, could not accept the news and still waits for his friend to call him as usual.
"My son is really traumatized," Yusra al-Zebda, Jamal's mother, told Xinhua, explaining that "my child lost his father in 2021 during an Israeli attack and this was the second time he has lost a beloved one."
"Jamal is too young to bear such pains," Yousra complained.
The non-government organization Defense for Children International in Palestine condemned Israel for targeting residential buildings and killing children.
Salah Abdul Ati, a Gaza-based human rights activist, told Xinhua that "there is no justification for bombing civilian houses and families."
During a press conference held in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Forces Spokesman Daniel Hagari expressed regret over the civilian casualties but said they were impossible to avoid because the PIJ operates in residential areas.
The Gaza-based joint chamber of military operations of Palestinian factions claimed to fire a barrage of rockets to southern and central Israel on Wednesday, in response to the surprising Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday predawn, which killed three senior members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement's armed wing in the Gaza Strip.
At least 21 Palestinians were killed and 64 were injured in the continuing Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, said the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Wednesday. ■
