Blasted by a missile on the road to safety
Family ordered to flee were targeted because they were driving minivan
The ambulanceman gave Ali the job of keeping his mother alive. The 12-year-old did what he could. “Mama, mama, don’t go to sleep,” he sobbed, gently patting her face beneath her chin. Behind her black veil, her eyelids were slowly sinking. “I’m going to die,” she sighed. “Don’t say that, mama,” Ali begged, and then slid to the ground in tears.
On the pavement around mother and son were the other members of the Sha’ita family, their faces spattered with each other’s blood. All were in varying shades of shock and injury. A tourniquet was tied on Ali’s mother’s arm. A few metres away, his aunt lay motionless, the white T-shirt beneath her abaya stained red. Two sisters hugged each other and wept, oblivious to the medics tending their wounds. “Let them take me, let them take me,” one screamed.
guardian.co.uk