The gallery of emblematic photographs of the ordeal to which Palestinians have been subjected in Gaza for a year has been enriched with a new image: that of the death of Shaaban Al-Dalou, 19, burned alive in a fire caused by an attack Israeli in a displaced persons camp, in Deir Al-Balah, on the night of Sunday, October 13 to Monday, October 14. Three other people, including his mother, Alaa Al-Dalou, 37, died with him and around forty were injured.
Videos of the last seconds of the young man’s life show him in the makeshift bed where he slept, stretching his arms to protect himself from the flames, before disappearing into the flames. This sequence, difficult to sustain, went viral. In the eyes of the Palestinians, it testifies to the cruelty of the bombings of the Jewish State, responsible for more than 42,000 deaths in twelve months, the majority of them women and minors, according to a count by the Gaza authorities, validated by international organizations. .
Shaaban Al-Dalou, the eldest of five children, originally from Gaza City, studied computer science before the war. He was known to be a good student and was said to have memorized the entire Quran. A few weeks after the start of the Jewish State’s offensive, launched on October 7, 2023 in retaliation for the massacre perpetrated by Hamas in southern Israel, he left to take refuge with his family in the south of the enclave. Like them, hundreds of thousands of Gazans obeyed the evacuation orders of the Israeli army, which then presented the southern part of the territory as a safe zone.
I wanted to go to Egypt
But in the Gaza Strip there is no space protected from bombs. In a video, which has resurfaced on social media since his death, Shaaban Al-Dalou claimed that he was in his fifth forced displacement. He also expressed a desire to leave Gaza and join Egypt. Images filmed in a tent set up in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir Al-Balah, in the center of the enclave, among dozens of other displaced people. The tragedy took place here on Monday, around 1:30 a.m.
“There was an explosion and the camp caught fire.”says photojournalist Attia Darwish, present at the scene that night, and who the world joined Gaza. The Israeli authorities prohibit the international press from accessing Palestinian territory. “ Shaaban was three meters away from us, burning. He was moving, he was alive, we tried to save him. But the hospital fire extinguishers didn’t work and we couldn’t get any closer, the heat was too strong. »
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