Life was cut tragically short just days from his 20th birthday for Shaban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old software engineering student.  Displaced from his home in Gaza, Shaban had been documenting the dire conditions his family suffered under Israel’s continued bombardment.  Despite trying to find help and get enough money to evacuate his family, he never managed to get them out.

Shaban and his mother were killed when Israeli forces shelled the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital complex in central Gaza in the early hours of Monday.  His final moments, connected to an IV drip, were captured on camera, a chilling reminder of the violence in the region.  Shaban’s father managed to rescue two children, but the fire consumed the rest of the family after the attack left him severely burned.

A Life Documented Amid War

In videos shot in the months before he died, Shaban spoke to Loly Pregnant about life in Gaza.  He said, among other things, describing in stark terms the reality of life from having to live in a tent after his family was displaced from their home because: “There is no safe place here in Gaza,” he says from the makeshift shelter he lives with his family.

Shaban filmed himself donating blood at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which had been attacked several times before the fateful one.  “We saw so many injuries, many children in dire need of blood,” he said, calling for a ceasefire to end the tragedy.

 A Family’s Tragic End

On Monday, the tents where such families were taking refuge in the courtyard of the hospital caught fire from the blasts of the Israeli bombs.  He, along with his mother, died in the flames.  His father, Ahmad al-Dalou, was pushed out of the tent from the explosion.  He could save two of his children, but soon, all of them were engulfed in flames.

“After that, the fire just engulfed everything.  I couldn’t rescue anyone,” Ahmad told Al Jazeera, mourning the loss of his son and wife.  Shaban dreamed of studying abroad to become a doctor, but those hopes were shattered.  “Now, I wish I had sent him,” his father said, devastated.

Shaban was known to have devoted himself to his studies at all costs, even during the war.  He has memorized the Holy Quran, and the father remembers how much Shaban adored his mother.  “Now, he has been martyred in her arms.  We buried them in each other’s embrace.”

Horrifying Scenes at the Hospital

The bombing that killed Shaban and his relatives injured at least 40 others in the makeshift camp.  One mother, Madi, described seeing flames devouring tents around her.  “People – women, men, and children – were running away from the spreading fire, screaming,” she said.  “Some of them were still burning, their bodies on fire as they ran.”

Madi and her husband salvaged the children and ran to the hospital’s emergency building.  Many of the displaced people sought shelter at the hospital after they had been tossed out of their homes several times, just like in the al-Dalou case.

International Outrage

The horrific pictures of civilians burning alive in the wake of the Israeli airstrike angered the incident into a rare rebuke coming from U.S. officials.  A spokesman for the Biden administration said with deep concern, “Israel has a responsibility to do more to avoid civilian casualties — and what happened here is horrifying.”

Despite all the claims of Israel of Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields, the result of the final bombing yet again was a tragic loss of life that was innocent.  Ahmad al-Dalou spoke with tears in his voice as he reflected on his wife and son’s death: “We are people that only ask for peace and freedom.  May God take care of our oppressors.”

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