Memories of Gaza dead continue to haunt living

Gaza: Umm Ebrahim is only 40 years old, but her face looks old and expressionless.

Gulf News spoke with her, recording her story as one of the many victims of Israel's invasion of Gaza.

"I have nothing in my mind except what has happened to me. I am a mother who collected her children in pieces. I will never forget these painful memories."

Her home in Jabaliya was destroyed during the invasion. Two relatives, her husband and five children were inside the home when it was hit by a missile. She collected as many of her injured children as she could and crawled out of the damaged building with her son Nahidh and sought safety in a house across the street.

Her husband Mohammad and four-year-old son Rakan were buried beneath the rubble. She did not know whether they were alive or dead.

"My son Rakan was torn to pieces. No hands, no legs and even no face were left. I could not bring him to the hospital; the house was falling down around him and my husband," she said.

Nahidh eventually crawled out of the shelter to find help, leaving Umm Ebrahim alone with a dying daughter and seriously wounded daughter-in-law, Eman. She is haunted by the girls' screams and calls for help.

"My daughter Fidaa was as beautiful as the moon...Her clothes were torn like her body. She died in my hands. I was not aware that my husband was killed. I was calling him to tell him his sons and daughters were killed. I heard him asking for the ambulance, and then his voice vanished."

Eman survived for 18 hours before she succumbed to her injuries.