‘My daughter’s bones are scattered on the ground’ – the terrifying search for the missing in Gaza

Aya al-Dabeh is 13 years old and lives with her family and hundreds of other refugees at a school in Tal al-Hawa, in Gaza City in the north. He was one of nine children.

One day at the beginning of the war Aya went to the bathroom upstairs at school and – her family says – she was shot in the chest by an Israeli sniper. The Israel Defense Forces said they did not target civilians and blamed Hamas for attacking from civilian areas. During the war, the United Nations Human Rights Office said that there was “fierce shooting by Israeli forces in densely populated areas resulting in apparently illegal killings, including people who have no weapons.”

The family buried Aya next to the school, with her mother Lina al-Dabah, 43, wrapped in a blanket “to protect her from rain and sun” in case the grave was disturbed and exposed to the elements.

When the Israeli military took over the school Lina fled south. She left with four children – two daughters and two sons – reuniting with her husband who had left with the other children. Lina had no choice but to leave her daughter where she lay, hoping to come back and recover the remains for a proper burial once peace comes.

“There was a very kind girl, and everyone loved her. She used to love everyone, her teachers and her studies, and she was very good at school. She wished well for everyone,” said Lina. When the truce came Lina asked relatives who still lived in the north to check on Aya’s grave. The news was terrible.