(Previous Incident Code: ISPT122)

A young girl between 9 and 12 years old, Dima Saad Asaliya, was reportedly killed in an alleged Israeli missile strike on Al Sikka street in Shasha neighbourhood of Gaza on May 19 2021. Another five other civilians were also reportedly injured in the attack.

Dima Asaliya’s father, Sa’ad Asaliya, a taxi driver in northern Gaza, posted an image of his daughter on Facebook after the incident. He told local sources that he had seen the missile hit the area from where he was standing on the roof of his building. He called an ambulance immediately, and only discovered the body of his daughter after the dust had cleared. Mr. Asalyia commented to Wafa news outlet: “What did my child do to make a missile turn her into pieces? Didn’t the occupying country, which possesses the technology, recognize that she is a child?”.

B’Tselem also collected testimony from Dima’s father: On Wednesday, 19 May 2021, at around 8:00 P.M., my daughter Dima, 10, went to her sister Irina’s, 26, to get a baking pot. My wife was making pita bread and needed the pot. Irina’s house is 50 meters away from ours. I was standing on the roof and saw Dima coming back with the pot. Just then, there was a loud explosion behind our house. I thought the missile had hit farmland about 20 meters away. There was a huge ball of dust and fire, and the force of the blast knocked me down. I didn’t think for a moment that the plane had struck my little girl. I immediately called the Civil Defense services and told them there’d been a bombing by my house and there might be people wounded or dead. I looked out at the main street to give them instructions where to go to, and then I saw a body lying on the ground. I still didn’t understand who it was. I told the ambulance driver that there was a body down below and asked him to wait a moment so I could climb down from the roof and check who it was. I went down and walked towards the body. Then I found it was my daughter Dima. I saw her lying dead, motionless. Meanwhile, my brothers and neighbors arrived, but I got to her first. I was in shock. I stood there and didn’t know what to do. I picked her up, but still didn’t know what to do. My brother Sa’id took her, put her in my brother Fathi’s car and drove her to hospital. After he drove off, I went inside to evacuate my family, because I was afraid there would be another bombing. Meanwhile, the ambulance arrived, but there were no more dead or wounded so he drove away. My brother Sa’id called me from the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and told me that Dima had arrived at the hospital lifeless and that she was dead. I started crying and screaming and reciting verses from the Quran. Why did they hit Dima? She was just a young girl holding a pot. It’s a horrifying crime against an innocent girl. Dima was my life and the flower of the house. She was the youngest. My home has become dark. Every child who comes into the house reminds me of Dima. Everyone loved her, family, neighbors, friends.”

Andalou Agency reported on the event after interviewing Dima’s father: “The little girl, “Dima Asaliya”, took a short way to her married sister’s house, to borrow a small electric oven, which her mother requested, so that she could cook bread before the power cut. The 11-year-old girl, Dima, went on her way to her sister’s house, which is only 50 meters away from her house, and in the middle is an empty plot of land. It was only moments until the Israeli fighters launched a missile at the empty plot of land, leaving it stained with blood.”

In her home, east of Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, a tent of sadness covered the sky, where everyone was shocked by the horror of what had happened.”

Sa’ad Asalyia described his daughter to Andalou Agency as the “angel of the house”. Speaking to the New York Times, Asalyia wondered if Israeli soldiers mistook the electric oven Dima was carrying for a weapon: “Maybe their alarms went off because of the stove… but did they not see how small she was?”.

According to a tweet from @same76335451, the victims of the strikes were taken to the Indonesian Hospital for treatment.

Sources described the weapon used as a missile launched from a weaponised Israeli reconnaissance drone. The incident took place the day before a ceasefire was agreed.