Twelve-year-old Gaza girl declared dead, found alive in morgue
Twelve-year-old Raghad al-Assar continues to struggle with deep trauma after surviving an Israeli attack that destroyed her family home in central Gaza last year — an attack that left her presumed dead and placed in a morgue before she was discovered to be alive.
Raghad was injured on June 8, 2024, when Israeli fire struck her home. “We were sitting in our home like everyone else when suddenly bullets, planes and drones came down on us,” she told. She was declared dead and left in a Gaza mortuary, where she remained for eight hours before a man searching for his own son noticed her fingers moving on the cold slab, News.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.
She spent two weeks in a coma. When she woke, her family explained that she had been placed in a morgue refrigerator after medics believed she had died. Two of her sisters were killed in the attack, and several family members were wounded. “All my family was injured, and two of my sisters were martyred,” she said. “My eldest sister’s condition is worse than mine. She can’t see in one eye, has burns, deep wounds and stomach problems.”
Raghad’s story is one of thousands to emerge from Israel’s war on Gaza. UN experts have described the two-year campaign as a genocide, and UNICEF estimates that around 64,000 children have been killed or maimed in Israeli strikes since the conflict began. According to Gaza health authorities, at least 69,187 Palestinians have been killed and 170,703 wounded since October 2023.
Her father, Mohammed, was at work when their home was bombed. A relative called to inform him, and he rushed to the hospital and later to the rubble of their house to search for his daughter. “We did not find any sign of her,” he said. After she was found alive, he noticed that the trauma had fundamentally changed her. “The incident changed her mental health and personality,” he explained. “There are moments when we’re walking in the street and she suddenly faints.”
Raghad now suffers from nightmares, anxiety and fear triggered by loud noises or the sound of aircraft. “I don’t like to remember. I don’t want to hear war sounds,” she said. “If I hear bombing or planes, I get frightened.”
Her family hopes to secure medical treatment for her and her injured sister abroad. “I want to go abroad for treatment. That is my dream,” she said. “It is a child’s right to live just like other people abroad — to play and to have wellbeing.”
Nearly two years of continuous bombardment have devastated Gaza’s healthcare system, destroying hospitals and killing hundreds of medical workers. Despite a ceasefire agreement reached last month between Israel and Hamas, Israeli attacks have continued, with more than 260 people reported killed since the truce began on October 10.
Similar news
