A Dublin woman says Israeli airstrikes have killed 28 members of her extended family in Gaza over the past eight days, reports RTE.
Yara Alagha wrote in a post on the X website that seven of the dead were children.
The 27-year-old’s mother is from the West Bank and her father is from Gaza.
It is believed that 11 members of her extended family were killed yesterday when their building was shelled by Israeli forces.
She revealed that the four Palestinians killed that evening by Khan Younis were members of their families.
Speaking to RTÉ News last night, Ms Alagha said that “every Gazan at this point has been visited by grief and destruction”.
She said: “Those of my family left are sending us messages telling us they are starving. My cousin, a senior engineer in Ireland, sent me a message pleading that I tell the world that him and his family, including three kids, are starving,” reports RTE.
She added: “You will notice patterns of those killed that there are often a number of deaths in the same family, this is because families choose to stick together so that if they are bombed, they all die together and nobody is left behind to grieve alone,” reports RTE.
Her cousin, Ibrahim Alagha, a Palestinian of Irish descent, is currently trying to secure safe passage from Gaza with his wife Hamida and three young children after arriving from Dublin to visit family members in June.
He said: “There’s no food, there’s extremely limited water, and don’t have electricity, we only rely on a small solar system to charge our phone. Internet is extremely limited; it comes and goes. During the night we can hear the sound of rockets and bombings everywhere around us,” reports RTE.
“It’s extremely extremely stressful, I’m always thinking, I’m always thinking ‘is this my last day? Will I be able to see another day or not?’ – that’s always what is in my mind,” he added, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.