An Eight-Year-Old Lone Survivor in Gaza
Gaza, Palestine — More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed — a low estimate according to researchers — during Israel’s post-October 7 genocidal blitz of the Gaza Strip and the inhabitants. The parents and siblings of eight-year-old Ahmad Khalil were shot and killed in front of his eyes. Khalil and his grandmother shared his story with Unicorn Riot in late 2024.
“The Israelis shot my father, my mother, my sisters and my brothers.”
Ahmad Khalil’s immediate family was killed in front of him while they were sheltering in a school in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Israeli forces entered the village and opened fire on them, killing the entire family. Ahmad survived with a hand injury.
Living in a tent at the time of the interview, Ahmad recounted his experience in between sorting lupini beans to sell and playing board games with his grandmother Umm Muhammad Sobh.
Sobh said Ahmad suffered a very traumatic experience in that his mother and father were “killed right in front of his eyes.” He now suffers great emotional pain and sometimes cries for hours, she said. [Read Khalil and Sobh’s full transcripts below.]
Transcript from the Lone Survivor
Ahmad Khalil, Lone Survivor of Israeli attack
“I’m Ahmad Khalil, I’m eight years old. We were in our house on October 7th, when [Israeli] jets dropped leaflets on us, telling us to leave this area. We went to Shad Ghazal, but we were still afraid because every day the [Israelis] bombed the buildings near us. After a few months, the [Israelis] entered with tanks and they blew the school up. The Israelis shot my father, my mother, my sisters and my brothers. I put my hands under my siblings’ noses to see who was still breathing, alive. I was also injured. An [Israeli] came and took me to Israel in a tank, treated me, and then threw me at the border. The Red Crescent picked me up and took me to Shuhada’ Al-Aqsa hospital. Then my grandmother came and took me from my uncle’s place and now we’re sitting here in a tent.”
Umm Muhammad Sobh, Grandmother of Ahmad Khalil
“I’m the only one taking care of Ahmad. He has no one else. The Israelis entered Shadi Abu Ghazalah School and killed his mother and father. Both were killed right in front of his eyes. He touched them and then he put his hand on his father’s mouth and found him dead. He put his hand on his mother’s mouth and found her martyred too. He checked all his siblings, and he was the only one who survived. His younger brother, only ten months old, was lying helplessly, crying and hungry. Ahmad tried to lift his mother’s hand, but he couldn’t since he was injured. He said, “I wasn’t able to lift my mother’s hand to free my younger brother because Mom was lying on him.” Only after 16 days, did the Israelis allow his uncles to take his parents and siblings from the classroom where they were killed. They found that the corpses had decayed Uncle Khalil grasped my youngest brother and found that he was dead. When he tried to lift him, his head split off the body…As they tried to carry him, Uncle Khalil screamed so loudly that he fainted.
When Ahmad remembers his mother and father he starts crying for hours, sometimes two hours, saying, “Mom, Dad, where are you? My family, my brothers. Where are my father and brothers? Where? My family, my uncle. Mohammed, my uncle Mohammed, my uncle Ahmad, all of them are gone. All of them are dead.”
I sit with him in the tent, trying to comfort him. “What shall I do for you?!”I keep persuading him to sleep, to calm down, and only when he becomes asleep, he calms down.”
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