Coming to terms with loss difficult

Eisa Al Batran has a year-old son waiting for him at home, but he chooses to wander the streets of Gaza. Al Batran, a school teacher at the UN school in the Al Bureij refugee camp, has not reported for classes either.

His wife Manal, three daughters and two sons were killed in an Israeli attack. The family was in one room of the house, while Eisa went to pray in the silence of the adjacent room for a few moments.

His infant son, Abdul Hadi crawled after him, which is the only reason he is alive. He remembered hearing seven-year-old Bilal and four-year-old Ezz Al Deen whispering something about Israeli warplanes in the sky. There were always warplanes in the sky, so he did not pay much attention to this.

As Eisa prayed, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at his neighbour's home.

There was neither enough time to finish his prayer or evacuate his family but he managed to grab his young son, yelling for the family to follow him outside.

The jets fired a second missile, hitting the balcony where his two sons were playing. The two boys were thrown from the balcony into a tree in the street where they were found by passersby.

He has not managed to compose himself after the heavy loss. The gruesome images took such a toll on him, that he hasn't the capacity to return to his only surviving son.

Bilal Badwan is a journalist based in Gaza.