Palestinian father hails ‘miracle’ daughters who were pulled from rubble in Gaza
Mira Nijim, 9, was still in a wheelchair. Her left leg — mangled in the airstrike that killed her brother, sister and mother — was held in a cast buttressed.
ANKARA, Turkey — Mira Nijim, 9, was still in a wheelchair. Her left leg — mangled in the airstrike that killed her brother, sister and mother — was held in a cast buttressed by metal joints and rods. But in a pastry shop in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, this week, Mira; her surviving sister, Miral, 14; and their father, Mahdi, managed some smiles.
It was a miracle they are alive, Mahdi, 42, told NBC News. “They are the only survivors.”
On Oct. 26, an Israeli airstrike brought down the apartment building where they were staying with relatives in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city. Dozens of people were killed, Mahdi said, including his wife, Mayada, 41; their daughter Maria, 12; and their 5-year-old son Ahmed.
More than two months after their deaths, Mahdi is still accounting for their losses: their presence, of course, and the life they were building together, as well as their memories, their dreams and their wishes, Mahdi said. “Everything is gone.”
Mahdi Nijim, 42, with his daughters Mira, 9, and Miral, 14, earlier this week. Nico Hameon / NBC NewsMahdi Nijim in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday, as he remembered his wife, daughter and son, who died in an airstrike in October.Nico Hameon / NBC NewsMahdi had left the apartment just before the strike to collect food aid at a nearby school, no more than a three-minute walk away, he said, when he saw a bomb falling from the sky. By the time he arrived at the apartment — where he and his family had been staying after they evacuated their home in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza — it was reduced to rubble, a scene of chaos and confusion that made it hard to believe his family had survived.
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