A six-year-old Palestinian girl was miraculously rescued from beneath the rubble of her bombed home seven hours after she was trapped in a pre-dawn Israeli blitz.
Suzy Eshkuntana woke up alone in Gaza’s largest medical facility after being rescued from the rubble left by the attack that tragically killed her mum and four siblings, it was revealed on Monday.
She was then reunited in Shifa hospital with her father, Riyad, who was also being treated for his wounds.
He immediately begged his daughter’s forgiveness for having been unable to free her himself.
Riyad told her: “Forgive me You screamed to me to come to you, but I couldn’t come.”
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It came as families in Gaza were on Monday counting the cost of the most devastating onslaught so far.
Waves of Israeli attacks took the death toll to at least 201, with 58 children known to be among the dead.
Some 1,200 people have so far been injured in the Palestinian territory.
As many as ten Israelis have been killed and 302 wounded as the Jewish state has came under rocket attacks.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already vowed the campaign against Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants based in Gaza will continue with “full force,” adding it “would take time to finish.”
And as many as 54 Israeli jets bombed 35 targets in just 20 minutes on Monday.
Among those killed in the devastating barrage was a top Islamic Jihad leader, Hussam Abu Harbeed.
Israel claims that a record 3,100 rockets had been fired into its own towns and cities from Gaza in the past week.
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In a statement confirming it had killed Harbeed, the Israeli military said he “was behind several anti-tank missile terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
Chiefs said that those attacks included one on the first day of the current round of fighting, which they said had injured a civilian in Israel.
Harbeed had been a commander with Islamic Jihad for 15 years, it said.
Downing Street said it was seeking answers from Israel about other attacks which destroyed a building housing the Associated Press and other media outlets in Gaza.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson ’s official spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned by UN reports that more than 23 schools and 500 homes as well as medical facilities and media offices have been destroyed or seriously damaged.”
The aerial bombardment began after Hamas rockets were fired at the cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon.
One of those missiles slammed into a synagogue hours before evening services for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, local emergency services said.
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No injuries were reported following the incident.
Israeli aircraft then launched their own raids, with the Israel Defence Forces saying nine residences belonging to high-ranking Hamas commanders had been hit.
It was claimed some of the homes were being used to store weapons caches.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: REUTERS)
Gaza’s people say the horror they are experiencing is worse than ever.
Samir al-Khatib, an emergency worker, said: “I have not seen this level of destruction through my 14 years of work.
“Not even in the 2014 war.”