Hasan al-Attar stood quietly inside the morgue, staring at the bodies of his daughter, Lamya, and three other children belonging to the same family. Wearing his fireman’s vest, he bent over to kiss his daughter, before the refrigeration unit door was closed.
“Pray for her,” a colleague said, clasping his hand on Hasan’s shoulder.
Lamya and the children – the siblings Amir and Islam al-Attar – and Mohammed al-Attar were killed overnight on Friday in Beit Lahia, after an Israeli air raid bombed the house they were staying in.
The northern town in the Gaza Strip, along with Beit Hanoun and Jabalya, was one of the areas that witnessed almost relentless aerial bombardment coupled with heavy artillery shelling. Shuja’iah, located in Gaza City’s east, was also battered.