Gaza City, Gaza – On May 19, shortly after midnight, a reconnaissance missile tore through the roof of the Muhareb family home in Rafah in the south of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Two minutes later, an Israeli warplane dropped another missile, which crashed through two storeys of the house, but somehow did not explode.
“My brother and his family, who live on the second floor, were all injured from the reconnaissance missile,” Waseem Muhareb told Al Jazeera. “My four-month-old baby was in a coma for two days, and my eight-year-old niece Layan was in the intensive care unit for 10 days with burns all over her body.”
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The al-Kawlaks, a family of four generations living next door to each other in downtown Gaza City, were utterly unprepared for the inferno. Like others, they were terrified by the heavy bombing in Israel's fourth war with Gaza's Hamas rulers that began May 10. Azzam al-Kawlak’s four children had gone to bed, and he and his wife were preparing to join them.
The single deadliest bombing raid of Israel’s fourth war with Hamas killed 22 members of the al-Kawlak family who were buried under the rubble of their homes.
The family and neighbors used ropes to clear chunks of concrete, working alongside ill-equipped rescue teams.
By nightfall, the family s death toll stood at 22.
Eight bodies were dug out of Azzam s building and 14 from the one next door.
The dead included 89-year-old family patriarch Amin, his son Fawaz, 62, his grandson Sameh, 28, and his great-grandson, 6-month-old Qusai.
Just a day earlier, Qusai s parents had celebrated a small milestone, his first tooth.
Azzam s two younger brothers were killed.
Three nieces, 5-year-old Rula, 10-year-old Yara and 12-year-old Hala, were found in a tight embrace, their bodies the last to be pulled out, said Azzam s surviving older brother, Awni.