Opinion: How Israel turned Gaza's 'safe zones' into graveyards

Their bodies lay together, inseparable: “One piece, one shroud, one grave … two little angels, burned to death."

This is how my dear friend, English professor Abeer Barakat, described the tragic loss of her seven-year-old niece, Dania, and four-year-old nephew, Yahya. 

Abeer, who taught at what was once the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, struggled to find words to convey the gravity of Israel’s “heinous crime”, which killed her youngest brother, Tareq, along with his wife and their two small children. 

The family was burned alive in a tent in Gaza’s al-Zawayda village after Israel shelled the area early last month. A missile hit their tent directly, leaving no chance of survival.

The haunting scene of Tareq’s 69-year-old aunt, Naimiya, arriving at the ambulance to identify Tareq’s charred body should forever weigh on the world’s conscience. 

READ MORE: How Israel turned Gaza's 'safe zones' into graveyards, opinion by Ghada Ageel