Israeli sniper bullet takes 12-year-old girl's life [View All]

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Sami Abu Salem writing from Jabaliya, occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 10 March 2008

"I put my hand on her chest to stop the streaming blood. She told me that she could not breathe, her body trembled and she closed her eyes," said Ra'd Abu Saif of his 12-year-old daughter Safa's last moments after she was shot by an Israeli sniper last Saturday.

Safa was shot in the left side of her chest while she was inside her home in Jabaliya, northern Gaza. An ambulance tried to reach her but Israeli soldiers opened fire at it, wounding a paramedic and causing the tires to lose air, and so she bled to death three hours after she was wounded.

Her 39-year-old father Ra'd, 37-year-old mother Samar, and the rest of Safa's family surrounded her, praying for her safety. Her father pressed on the wound while her brother Ali held her hands as her body was severely trembling. She asked her father to help her to breathe.

"Dad, I cannot breathe, all of you leave me please, let me breathe, enough, enough," were Safa's last words, according to her father.

Ra'd tried CPR, but he failed. No more pulse and no more breath.

Safa had gone to fetch some clothes from the second floor when, according to Ra'd, "the Israeli sniper on a nearby building shot her in her chest."

The gunshot penetrated both her chest and the door of the room, and blood poured from her chest and back.

"I heard a gunshot and soon her scream filled the house. I went upstairs, her knees gave in and slowly she fell down while calling for her mother," said her 17-year-old brother Ali.

Her father carried his wounded daughter and tried to evacuate her to the hospital but when he reached the door of the house, his brothers prevented him from leaving as Israeli snipers were shooting anything moving.

Several phone calls later, the ambulance center told the family to evacuate the girl. Her mother Samar carried Safa but as soon as she left the house, the Israeli soldiers opened fire at her and the wounded girl fell to the ground. Samar dragged her into the house.

While Safa laid dying, the family waited as explosions, gunshots, drones and helicopters sounded all around them. Israeli forces cut the electricity and shot the water tanks on the roof. The radio and mobile phone batteries lost their power.

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