Rennes, France: Palestinian social worker Tariq Abu Eita, 42, had his whole life turned upside down in seconds when Israeli airstrikes hit his neighborhood early in the Gaza war.
The October 14 bombing exploded through the walls of his family's two-story home.
This incident killed his 77-year-old father, Hamed, his 15-year-old wife, 37-year-old Mentehi, and his 11-year-old son, Elias.
His two nieces, eight-year-old Mira and 14-year-old Tala, were also killed.
“Everything is gone,” Abu Eita said, after showing AFP pictures of the wedding and her late son smiling on her phone.
He and his other son, 14-year-old Faris, are among a handful of Palestinians injured in the war who have been flown to France for specialized medical treatment.
The latest war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally from Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory strike killed at least 39,550 people, according to health officials in the territory, which did not provide details of civilian or militant casualties.
“It's not just numbers,” said Abu Aita.
“Each of these people had their loved ones, family and memories.”
He and his son Faris were outside their house after receiving water in the Northern IDP camp of Jabaliyah and both were seriously injured.
Fars suffered a large skull fracture that put him in a coma for more than three weeks.
Nine months later, as Israeli forces continue to attack the devastated Gaza Strip, both are recovering in France after extensive medical care.
But Abu Aita fears that he will now also lose the two other sons he had to lose without a mother in the besieged territory: 10-year-old Jud and 15-year-old Ahmed.
“If anything happened to them, it would be a disaster,” the father said.
“I really couldn't cope.”
Abouita says she was promised that she could apply to bring her children to France as soon as she received asylum.
But he's still waiting, leaving her plenty of time to agonize over the impossible choice she's made.
Fars was dying. “If I had stayed, I would have lost him.”
Gaza officials say Israeli attacks have injured more than 91,000 people since October 7.
Meanwhile, about 10 children in Gaza lose one or both of their legs every day, the UN's Palestine Refugee Agency says.
Asif Abu Mahdi, an avid soccer player, 12 years old, is one of them.
He says he was playing soccer outside his home in Nasirat Central refugee camp on October 16 when his neighborhood was damaged and turned into ruins.
“I thought there was debris on my leg,” he said, sitting in a wheelchair with a Palestinian soccer scarf over his shoulder near a hospital on the outskirts of Paris.
I sat down to pick it up and realized that my leg had been cut.
Asif was also taken to France for treatment along with his mother Raja Abdul Karim Abu Mahdi.
But Abu Mahdi, 47, who lost her husband when Asif was a baby, was not allowed to bring her five other children – 13-year-old Anas, 15-year-old Ayesha, 17-year-old Ahmed, 18-year-old Moyed and 20-year-old Mohammad. .
A mother who says she lost three nephews in the war is still worried.
