Latest news with #FahmiAlJarjawiSchool
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Five-year-old Ward Sheikh Khalil shares story of survival after Israeli air strike
By Matthew Doran , ABC Ward Sheikh Khalil. Photo: ABC News Sitting amongst charred rubble and clutching a rag doll with a few strands of bright pink woollen hair, Ward Sheikh Khalil is handling a wave of attention with maturity beyond her years. Her story of survival is stunning, to say the least - particularly given the unimaginable losses her family experienced in the early hours of Monday morning. A silhouette of Ward, calmly walking through a school set ablaze in an Israeli air strike, quickly spread around the world. Now in full view, the brave 5-year-old explained how she remarkably survived the fire. "I escaped the fire walking on the side [of the room]," she told the ABC in Gaza City. "My mother's room was smashed and the ceiling fell on me. "I went out alone, no-one helped me. "I escaped the fire, then came back and found no-one. I was on my own." Ward's father and brother survived the strike and the fire and remain in hospital in a critical condition. Her mother and five brothers and sisters perished. "That's my sister's sandal," she pointed out in the rubble. "Mum is in paradise." Ward Sheikh Khalil is seen escaping the school strike in Gaza City. Photo: ABC/Supplied The family had been sheltering in the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, after being forced to flee Israel's bombardment of the strip multiple times during the course of the 19-month-long war. Palestinian health authorities said 36 people were killed in the strike - the majority of them women and children. "We are staying at a school even though they bomb schools, but what can we do?" Ward's uncle, Iyad Sheikh Khalil, told the ABC. "There are no alternatives - streets are full, landfills are full, neighbourhoods and homes are full, we hardly have homes like before." Iyad was staying in a different area when he heard the news of a strike hitting the school where his brother's family were sheltering. "We went on social media, I saw the image of Ward - I recognised her," he said. "That's how I found out that the missile hit my brother and his children. "We did not dare come at night because at night planes will hit you if you walk on the street. " Iyad said it was a "real miracle" that his niece had survived. The Israel Defense Forces and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet said it had been targeting a "command and control centre" used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. "The command and control centre was used by the terrorists to plan and gather intelligence in order to execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops," it said in a statement. "Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence." The comments do not mention giving advance notice to families sheltering at the school to flee. "I was not here, but that was without warning," Iyad said. "Had there been an evacuation order, they would have moved out, we would not have seen that many killed and injured." Israel also has not released any evidence to back up its claim that militants were using the school as a command centre. The only imagery released was a satellite image with highlighted areas showing what Israel said the military hit. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is the latest world leader to condemn Israel's conduct in Gaza, following in the footsteps of British, French and Canadian politicians intensifying their criticism of the Netanyahu government. "The expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza targeting civilian infrastructure, among them a school that served as a shelter for displaced Palestinian families, killing civilians, including children, is abhorrent," Ms von der Leyen told Jordan's King Abdullah, according to an EU readout of their latest phone call. "We call on the government of Israel to put an immediate halt on the current escalation. "We also call on the terrorist organisation of Hamas to immediately and without any delays release the remaining hostages cruelly held since 7 October 2023." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reiterated his concerns about the conflict. "What has happened in recent days appears to me no longer to be urgently necessary for the defence of Israel's right to exist and for fighting Hamas's terrorism," he told a press conference in Finland. "The civilian population is being affected excessively here. "What is happening there at present is no longer comprehensible and therefore, we will intensify dialogue with the government in Israel." The sharper language from world leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has been welcomed but also as coming far too late for the Palestinian population in Gaza. Since the war began, Palestinian health authorities said more than 53,000 people had been killed in Israeli strikes. More than 1100 were killed and 250 taken hostage in Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, fuelling the war. Fifty-eight hostages remain in the strip, and the Netanyahu government is facing intense criticism at home over its handling of ceasefire and hostage release negotiations. - ABC
Al Jazeera
28-05-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Silhouetted by fire, six-year-old girl survives Israeli attack in Gaza
Ward Khalil stares at the camera, her eyes barely focusing as she recalls the horrors of what she experienced. 'When I woke up, I found a huge fire, and I saw my mom was dead,' she says, recounting the Israeli air attack early on Monday that she survived but that killed her mother, two of her siblings and 33 other people. Video footage of six-year-old Ward, her small body silhouetted against the flames after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, has shocked people around the world, highlighting the ferocity of Israel's attacks on Gaza. Ward's father and a brother also survived the attack, but they both remain in hospital. The school had been sheltering several families, including many children, when it was targeted by Israeli fire. 'I walked in the fire so I could escape. … I was in the fire, and the ceiling fell on me. The ceiling all collapsed. The fire was blazing,' Ward recounted, the distress clear in her voice. 'See? My arm is burned here,' she said, showing the camera the injuries. Ward sobbed as she explained what happened to her family: 'They were martyred. May God forgive them.' Footage taken from the school after the attack shows blood-stained walls and charred mattresses lying on the floor as rescue workers and distraught relatives search the rubble and burned clothing for signs of survivors. Eyad al-Sheikh Khalil, Ward's uncle, rushed to the school after seeing a picture of her online. 'I was looking at the pictures journalists were posting, and I saw a photo of Ward with the Civil Defence and realised it was my niece,' he said of the images of Ward being comforted by rescue workers near the school, the bright bows in her hair dulled by the ash from the fire. 'When someone comes out of an attack like this, in a war like this, what do you expect a kid to feel?' Eyad asked. 'Of course she's going to suffer mentally. We're all suffering mentally.' 'It was indescribable,' a survivor who was pulled from the rubble with her son told rescuers. 'Body parts, charred bodies, the smell of burning. I swear to God, our hearts have died. We're shaken, exhausted. Enough.' Displaced people in Gaza have been crowding into schools, many of which are affiliated with the United Nations, since the onset of Israel's war on the enclave in October 2023. On May 7, Israeli forces targeted a single school sheltering 2,000 Palestinians twice on the same day, killing at least 29 civilians in the Bureij refugee camp, including women and children. According to UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, nearly three-quarters of all school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit by Israeli fire since October 2023. According to UN satellite-based assessments, 95 per cent of Gaza's schools have sustained damage, rendering the vast majority unusable. UN-run shelters are now 'overwhelmed with displaced people desperately seeking safety', UNRWA said in an update after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School. It also stressed that the lack of food in Gaza due to a three-month siege imposed upon the territory by Israel had added to people's suffering. 'Many families are sheltering in abandoned, unfinished, or damaged buildings,' the agency explained. 'Sanitation conditions are dire; in some cases, hundreds of people are having to share a single toilet. Others, including children and pregnant women, are sleeping in the open.'
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Five-year-old Ward Sheikh Khalil shares story of viral survival of Israeli air strike
Sitting amongst charred rubble and clutching a rag doll with a few strands of bright pink woollen hair, Ward Sheikh Khalil is handling a wave of attention with maturity beyond her years. Her story of survival is stunning, to say the least — particularly given the unimaginable losses her family experienced in the early hours of Monday morning. A silhouette of Ward, calmly walking through a school set ablaze in an Israeli air strike, quickly spread around the world. Now in full view, the brave five-year-old explained how she remarkably survived the fire. "I escaped the fire walking on the side [of the room]," she told the ABC in Gaza City. "My mother's room was smashed and the ceiling fell on me. "I went out alone, no one helped me. "I escaped the fire, then came back and found no one. I was on my own." Ward's father and brother survived the strike and the fire and remain in hospital in a critical condition. Her mother and five brothers and sisters perished. "That's my sister's sandal," she pointed out in the rubble. "Mum is in paradise." The family had been sheltering in the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, after being forced to flee Israel's bombardment of the strip multiple times during the course of the 19-month-long war. Palestinian health authorities said 36 people were killed in the strike — the majority of them women and children. "We are staying at a school even though they bomb schools, but what can we do?" Ward's uncle, Iyad Sheikh Khalil, told the ABC. "There are no alternatives — streets are full, landfills are full, neighbourhoods and homes are full, we hardly have homes like before." Iyad was staying in a different area when he heard the news of a strike hitting the school where his brother's family were sheltering. "We went on social media, I saw the image of Ward — I recognised her," he said. "That's how I found out that the missile hit my brother and his children. "We did not dare come at night because at night, planes will hit you if you walk on the street. " Iyad said it was a "real miracle" that his niece had survived. The Israel Defense Forces and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet said it had been targeting a "command and control centre" used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. "The command and control centre was used by the terrorists to plan and gather intelligence in order to execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops," it said in a statement. "Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence." The comments do not mention giving advance notice to families sheltering at the school to flee. "I was not here, but that was without warning," Iyad said. "Had there been an evacuation order, they would have moved out, we would not have seen that many killed and injured." Israel also has not released any evidence to back up its claim that militants were using the school as a command centre. The only imagery released was a satellite image with highlighted areas showing what Israel said the military hit. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is the latest world leader to condemn Israel's conduct in Gaza, following in the footsteps of British, French and Canadian politicians intensifying their criticism of the Netanyahu government. "The expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza targeting civilian infrastructure, among them a school that served as a shelter for displaced Palestinian families, killing civilians, including children, is abhorrent," Ms von der Leyen told Jordan's King Abdullah, according to an EU readout of their latest phone call. "We call on the government of Israel to put an immediate halt on the current escalation. "We also call on the terrorist organisation of Hamas to immediately and without any delays release the remaining hostages cruelly held since 7 October 2023." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reiterated his concerns about the conflict. "What has happened in recent days appears to me no longer to be urgently necessary for the defence of Israel's right to exist and for fighting Hamas's terrorism," he told a press conference in Finland. "The civilian population is being affected excessively here. "What is happening there at present is no longer comprehensible and therefore, we will intensify dialogue with the government in Israel." The sharper language from world leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has been welcomed but also as coming far too late for the Palestinian population in Gaza. Since the war began, Palestinian health authorities said more than 53,000 people had been killed in Israeli strikes. More than 1,100 were killed and 250 taken hostage in Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, fuelling the war. Fifty-eight hostages remain in the strip, and the Netanyahu government is facing intense criticism at home over its handling of ceasefire and hostage release negotiations.
Al Jazeera
27-05-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Silhouetted by fire, 6-year-old girl survives Israeli attack in Gaza
Ward Khalil stares at the camera, her eyes barely focusing as she recalls the horrors of what she experienced. 'When I woke up, I found a huge fire, and I saw my mom was dead,' she says, recounting the Israeli air attack early on Monday that she survived but that killed her mother, two of her siblings and 33 other people. Video footage of six-year-old Ward, her small body silhouetted against the flames after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, has shocked people around the world, highlighting the ferocity of Israel's attacks on Gaza. Ward's father and a brother also survived the attack, but they both remain in hospital. The school had been sheltering several families, including many children, when it was targeted by Israeli fire. 'I walked in the fire so I could escape. … I was in the fire, and the ceiling fell on me. The ceiling all collapsed. The fire was blazing,' Ward recounted, the distress clear in her voice. 'See? My arm is burned here,' she said, showing the camera the injuries. Ward sobbed as she explained what happened to her family: 'They were martyred. May God forgive them.' Footage taken from the school after the attack shows blood-stained walls and charred mattresses lying on the floor as rescue workers and distraught relatives search the rubble and burned clothing for signs of survivors. Eyad al-Sheikh Khalil, Ward's uncle, rushed to the school after seeing a picture of her online. 'I was looking at the pictures journalists were posting, and I saw a photo of Ward with the Civil Defence and realised it was my niece,' he said of the images of Ward being comforted by rescue workers near the school, the bright bows in her hair dulled by the ash from the fire. 'When someone comes out of an attack like this, in a war like this, what do you expect a kid to feel?' Eyad asked. 'Of course she's going to suffer mentally. We're all suffering mentally.' 'It was indescribable,' a survivor who was pulled from the rubble with her son told rescuers. 'Body parts, charred bodies, the smell of burning. I swear to God, our hearts have died. We're shaken, exhausted. Enough.' Displaced people in Gaza have been crowding into schools, many of which are affiliated with the United Nations, since the onset of Israel's war on the enclave in October 2023. On May 7, Israeli forces targeted a single school sheltering 2,000 Palestinians twice on the same day, killing at least 29 civilians in the Bureij refugee camp, including women and children. According to UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, nearly three-quarters of all school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit by Israeli fire since October 2023. According to UN satellite-based assessments, 95 per cent of Gaza's schools have sustained damage, rendering the vast majority unusable. UN-run shelters are now 'overwhelmed with displaced people desperately seeking safety', UNRWA said in an update after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School. It also stressed that the lack of food in Gaza due to a three-month siege imposed upon the territory by Israel had added to people's suffering. 'Many families are sheltering in abandoned, unfinished, or damaged buildings,' the agency explained. 'Sanitation conditions are dire; in some cases, hundreds of people are having to share a single toilet. Others, including children and pregnant women, are sleeping in the open.'
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Girl seen running through burning school after Israeli bombing raid in clips that have fueled global outrage
A child is seen running through a burning building after it was bombed in a deadly Israeli strike on Gaza in harrowing video images. The overnight attack, one of 200 on the embattled enclave in the past 48 hours, killed more than 30 people. World leaders have condemned the assault on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in Gaza City, which had been housing displaced Palestinians, after the video emerged. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Disturbing: Footage shared widely online reportedly shows a small child running from the fire after the strike on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school site in Gaza City The school was targeted as part of 200 attacks on Gaza in the past 48 hours, Israel's military confirmed. Pictures and videos of fires tearing through the building and the destruction in the aftermath have since circulated online. Footage showing a little girl running through the building, which Al Jazeera and other outlets claim to have verified, was shared by Israeli national broadcaster Kann News before being deleted. It is not clear if the child in the video escaped the blaze. Other images from the site, where displaced families had been sheltering, show the badly burned corpses of adults and children. In the hours since, Gaza's Hamas-run government has said that some 18 children were among those killed in the attack, which it condemned it as a 'brutal massacre.' In a statement, it said Israel has been 'deliberately and systematically' targeting shelters for displaced people 'in a flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws, and in a blatant attempt to inflict the largest possible number of civilian casualties.' The Israeli military said it had 'struck key terrorists who were operating within a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center embedded in an area that previously served as the 'Faami Aljerjawi' School.' It claimed that 'numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.' Deadly assault: Overnight Israel launched a strike on a school in the territory which had been sheltering displaced people, with rescuers saying at least 20 were killed in the attack On Monday afternoon, the Israel army issued a far-reaching evacuation order for much of the southern Gaza Strip, warning people to move to the Mawasi area on the coast. 'The IDF will launch an unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terror organizations [in this area],' the military's Arabic-language spokesman, Col Avichay Adraee, said on X. He added that the evacuated area is considered 'a dangerous combat zone' and that the coastal area would be designated a 'safer zone.' Overall, more than 50 people have been killed in attacks since dawn on Monday, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Responding to recent Israeli attacks in an interview, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they are taking a humanitarian toll on civilians that can no longer be justified as a fight against terrorism. 'Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,' he told broadcaster WDR in a televised interview. He added he planned to hold a call with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him 'to not overdo it,' though for 'historical reasons', Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners. The UN said on Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the overall death toll to 53,939 - most of whom are civilians. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Palestinian terrorists also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead. Donald Trump has said he wants to end the war in Gaza 'as quickly as possible', with sources reportedly suggesting that he could announce a ceasefire 'within the coming days.' Counting the cost: Palestinians inspect the area following an Israeli airstrike at dawn on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City 'We want to see if we can stop it. And we've talked to Israel, we want to see if we can stop this whole situation as quickly as possible,' the US President told reporters as he boarded Air Force One. Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia and other news outlets in the region cited sources as saying that there is a growing likelihood that Trump will announce a ceasefire in the coming days. It would come as part of a deal that would include the release of Israeli hostages, the anonymous 'knowledgeable sources' reportedly said. Israel has been intensifying its offensive in Gaza over recent weeks, at the same time as its three-month blockade of humanitarian supplies into the war-ravaged strip has sharpened international condemnation. The day before, Israeli strikes killed 22 people and wounded dozens more across the Palestinian territory, the Gaza civil defense agency said. Arab and European nations gathered yesterday to seek an end to the conflict while Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called for an arms embargo on Israel. He also called for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza 'massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel', describing the territory as humanity's 'open wound.'
