Aya al-Daba was 13 years old and lived with her family and hundreds of other refugees at a school in Tal al-Hawa, in the northern Gaza city. She was one of nine children.
One day at the beginning of the war, Aya went to the bathroom upstairs at the school and, according to her family, an Israeli sniper shot her in the chest. The Israel Defense Forces say they do not target civilians and blame Hamas for the attack from civilian areas. During the war, the UN Human Rights Office said that “Israeli forces engaged in intense shelling in densely populated areas, resulting in apparently unlawful killings, including of unarmed bystanders.”
The family buried Aya outside the school and her mother Lina al-Daba, 43, wrapped her in a blanket “to protect her from the rain and sun” in case the grave was disturbed and exposed to the elements.
When the Israeli military took over the school, Lina fled south. She traveled with four other children – two daughters and two sons – to be reunited with her husband, who had left earlier with the couple’s other children. Lina had no choice but to leave her daughter where she lay, hoping to return and retrieve the remains for a proper burial once peace came.
“Aya was a very good girl and everyone loved her. She used to love everyone, her teachers and her studies, and she did very well in school. I wished everyone well,” says Lina. When the ceasefire came, Lina asked relatives still living in the north to check on Ai’s grave. The news was devastating.
