BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) – Shahed Quishta was curled up in an armchair one late afternoon during the Gaza war when a shell slammed into her living room. Shrapnel pierced the 8-year-old’s head and neck, and she died minutes after arriving at a hospital.
Her funeral was held before nightfall, in line with Muslim tradition. Her family couldn’t host a customary three-day wake, typically attended by hundreds of people, because streets remained dangerous during ongoing fighting between Israel and Gaza militants.
Almost a month after her death from what her father says was an Israeli tank shell, her family remains paralyzed by grief.
Sister Rojina, 14, can’t sleep in the room they shared, spending nights on a mattress in the hallway. Her mother Nisreen, 38, takes clothes from Shahed’s closet from time to time, crying as she inhales the lingering scent.
The Quishtas are among thousands who suffered a loss during the current Israel-Hamas war, the third in Gaza in just over five years. The emotional wounds, though sometimes hidden, can be seen in the grim statistics of the conflict.