Five-year-old Alaa Qadoum was outside a relative’s house in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday when an Israeli airstrike hit in the street nearby without warning, killing her, according to the girl’s grandfather and a neighbor who witnessed the scene.
Hours later, Alaa was wrapped in a white shroud and a Palestinian flag, her face uncovered so relatives could plant a few final kisses on her forehead before she was laid to rest. A bright pink bow tied most of her hair back.
“She was an innocent, little girl,” her grandfather said. “Was she launching rockets on the border? She was a child who wanted to see her whole life ahead of her.”
An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, said Alaa’s father, Abdullah Qadoum, was a senior Islamic Jihad commander, but would not say whether he was targeted in the airstrike. The family would not comment on whether he was linked to Islamic Jihad.
Alaa was among some two dozen people killed in two days of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that began Friday afternoon and continued into Saturday. Israeli officials said the strikes have targeted the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza after Hamas.
Her father was wounded in the same airstrike and is in critical condition, according to doctors in the hospital where he was being treated. Alaa’s brother was also wounded, the grandfather said.
A senior Israeli military official who briefed reporters on Saturday said he was aware of the reports of Alaa’s death, adding that any civilian deaths would be investigated.
Last year, during 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas, at least 67 children were killed in Gaza. Two children were killed in Israel during the war.
Fady Hanona contributed reporting from Gaza City.
