I reached Hussam Abu Ajwa on his phone.
What do you ask a man who has just lost a child?
What does a bereaved father say?
Abu Ajwa, whose daughter Tala, 10, was killed on 5 September, reached for the words of Mahmoud Darwish, a reply the late poet, while ailing and waiting to die, gave to a reporter’s question about how he felt.
“Bruised feelings and broken thoughts, and some scratched up memories. The doctor says nothing is fatal, just a little loss to the soul.”
Tala had been playing with her friends when a bomb struck a downstairs apartment in Gaza City, killing her on the spot and adding her name to the list of the nearly 17,000 children Israel has killed in Gaza since October last year.
A photograph of Tala under a white shroud wearing her pink roller skates subsequently went viral on social media. ….more
