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18th May 2021

Five-year-old in Gaza knows no English but she knows the word for bombing

Claudia McInerney

This comes as the conflict between Israel and Gaza continues

A family in Gaza has survived the Israeli air strikes but are now left without basic essentials, such as water and electricity.

Mohammed Qeeq, 25, told Sky News of the day-to-day difficulties his family faces amidst the ongoing attacks.

He said: “The electricity comes for an hour and cuts off. The wires are cut. We don’t have electricity, or internet, or water or anything.

“What should we do?” he added.

Pointing towards his father, who is sat next to a broken window, Qeeq told Sky News: “This man is 81 years old. This wall and window hit him. I was sleeping next to him. The windows fell on us. The fridge fell on us, when I woke up and woke him up,” he says.

“Can this man fire rockets? This is an old civilian. What can he do? You are hitting the civilians.”

The Qeeqs used to live next door to the Hadidis, however a mother and four sons have sadly died, Sky News reports.

Qeeq’s five-year-old daughter, Susu, tells the reporter in Arabic: “They didn’t do anything and they killed them and we were scared because there was bombing and we had no Eid.”

However, as reported by Sky News, Susu uses the English word for “bombing.”

The violent attacks in the region have continued for more than a week, killing approximately 212 in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, including 61 children, and ten in Israel, including two children.

The Israeli government has recently thanked US President Biden for blocking a UN statement that called for a de-escalation in violence for a third time.

The statement from the UN intended to order a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, as the ongoing violent attacks continue to cause loss of life.