Israel Badly Burns Young Girl and Kills Her Mother in Airstrike on Gaza Home

A small child has been found sitting alone on a bed engulfed by smoke and flames moments after Israel destroyed her home in Gaza City, leaving her badly burned and killing her mother.

Dramatic footage captured by Palestinian journalist Ali al-Jaafrawi showed him racing to rescue the girl, later identified as Maryam Ahmed Ghanem, from the burning building. Her mother was 33-year-old Reem Asaad Awad.

“I went back to rescue others and to document what happened, but I suffocated and lost consciousness because of the thick smoke. I saw a woman on fire inside the apartment,” he told Al Jazeera Arabic.

Hospital photos of Maryam with extensive burns on her face have led to widespread condemnation of the attacks.

Children’s educator and YouTube star Ms Rachel, a vocal critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, questioned why Maryam’s story had not received greater media coverage. 

“The mainstream news is complicit in this genocide as well as everyone who witnesses it and stays silent,” she wrote on social media. 

The strikes killed four people and injured several others, the Anadolu Agency reported, citing a source from Al-Shifa Hospital. It is unclear if the girl had other relatives who were killed or injured. Her father was killed in a seperate attack at the start of the genocide, the New Arab reported. 

Israel says it was targeting a Hamas member but has not provided evidence to substantiate the claim.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), a civil rights group, called on US lawmakers to condemn Israel for “burning a Palestinian mother alive while her daughter watched in Gaza.” 

Media reports about the attack have not confirmed the exact cause of the mother’s death. But throughout the genocide in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have set thousands of buildings and tents alight, burning their inhabitants to death.

In June, an entire sleeping family of five burned to death in their Gaza City home. Last December, Israeli strikes killed five people inside their tents, including two children, in the al-Mawasi displacement camp, a “safe zone” west of Khan Younis. Medical sources at the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital said the bodies of the victims arrived badly charred. 

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers say the military routinely bombs homes knowing multiple civilians are inside, while a UN report in June found that Israel deliberately kills and tortures Palestinian children. 

The IDF has repeatedly violated a so-called ceasefire agreement signed with Hamas in October 2025, killing at least 1,498 Palestinians and injuring more than 5,000, Gaza health ministry figures show.