Ten members of a Palestinian family, including a baby aged just two months, were killed in a single airstrike, a devastated relative has said.
Wafaa Shamallakh, who works for Kingston Council as an interpreter, made her shocking revelation during an interview with Sky News in which she claimed to have lost a total of 16 people so far this month.
Ms Shamallakh, who believes Israel was responsible, said: “Ten of them in one go.
“An air strike hit my uncle’s house with his whole family inside.
“My uncle, his wife, his five sons, his daughter-in-law, and his two grandchildren.
“The little one was two months old.”
Her uncle, Abdel Naser Shamallakh, 56, lived in Sheikh Eljeen in southwest Gaza, she explained.
On the night of Sunday October 8 – the day after the murderous attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen which resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people – his house was hit, with devastating consequences.
Her uncle, his wife Soha, their five children Ahmed, 25, Marwan, 22, Asad, 10, Mohamed, 20, and Yazan, 10, plus Ahmed’s wife Warda, 25, their two young boys, Abdel Naser, aged two, and two-month-old Omar, were all killed.
Ms Shamallakh added: “They found Mohammed’s body, and then Ahmed’s.
“The rest of the family… my uncle, Asad, Marwan, they couldn’t find any of their bodies.”
“They knew they found Warda because she was holding her two-month-old son.
“But they didn’t find my uncle Abdel Naser. They found body parts.”
Hamas last night blamed Israel for a huge explosion at a hospital in Gaza City last night which killed hundreds of people – although the Israeli military denied responsibility and claimed the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
The Gaza Health Ministry says 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded since October 7.
Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead.
At least 199 Israelis, including children, are believed to have been captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza.
