Under a scorching sun last Saturday, 14-year-old Tala Mahmoud was waiting in a food distribution line to secure a dish of lentils for her family in the displaced persons’ camp in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Then, chaos.
In minutes, Israeli war planes dropped a reported five 2,000 pound bombs on the area – an area the Israeli military had designated a “safe zone,” and which was filled with people who had been forcibly displaced from elsewhere in Gaza.
Tala’s slender body was sent into the air. Her plate of yellow lentils turned scarlet after being mixed with her blood.
Naglaa, Tala’s mother, told The Electronic Intifada what she saw:
“I was waiting for Tala to arrive when the world turned upside down. We heard massive explosions. Everything was destroyed. I could no longer see anything,” she said.
She ran to find her daughter at the food distribution point, but all she saw was blood and torn-apart bodies. ….more
