When an Israeli airstrike on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah sparked a fire that swept through a cluster of tents Monday night, 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalu was sleeping near his mother, Alaa, 38.
In a video that circulated widely on social media, Shaban's arms could be seen reaching from the enveloping flames, horrifying a world that watched him being burned alive.
In an interview with NBC News, Shaban's 17-year-old brother, Mohammed al-Dalu, described the Israeli attack that killed his mother and brother, saying he saw something fall on Shaban's leg, pinning him down. He tried to run into the tent to save his brother, but several men held him back.
"No one let me see my brother Shaban," he said. "My heart was burning."

Shaban al-Dalu, right, and Mohammed, second from right, with their family before the war.
Their father, Ahmed al-Dalu, his face covered in burn dressings and his right eye swollen shut, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that he'd been thrown from the tent by the blast's impact, but managed to run back to pull his daughter and his youngest son out of the tent before it was engulfed in flames.

Shaban's death was certain to have been painful, but Mohammed told a kinder story: "The fire was cool and peaceful for him." His mother, Mohammed said, "she remained asleep. If the fire had been burning her, she would have woken up and started screaming, but my mother, thank God, remained asleep."
Mohammed said his mother's last words to him were good night: "My mother woke up, but she is in heaven."

The family had been displaced at least 15 times before, and Shaban had been injured two weeks earlier in another attack. Wednesday would have been his 20th birthday.

Shaban and Alaa were among five people killed. Dozens more were injured, including Shaban’s father and three of his four siblings.

The video capturing Shaban’s final moments had a visceral impact on those who watched it and it quickly spread on social media, with some calling for Israel to be held to account for the strike as the country faces mounting pressure to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip, where more than 42,400 people have been killed in the past year, according to local health officials.

“Burning people to death when they are sleeping in tents ?” one person wrote. “Humanitarian organizations and all western governments must condemn Israel and withdraw all support immediately.”

The fire ignited by the Israeli strike in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday.
“israel is committing a horrific genocide while western leaders are complicit in the deaths of families, innocent children, and entire bloodlines,” another said.

Israel has been accused of genocide over its actions in Gaza before the International Court of Justice and by the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinain territories. Both Israel and the U.S. have denied the accusation.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller described the images of people burning alive as “deeply disturbing” during a news briefing Tuesday.

“We all saw that video. ... It’s horrifying to see people burn to death,” Miller said. “We have made clear our serious concerns about the matter directly to the government of Israel.”

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the military targeted the compound because Hamas militants were allegedly using the hospital as a “command and control” center. The IDF did not provide evidence supporting the claim, and NBC News was not able to verify the statement.

Mohammed confirmed that it was his brother and their mother burning to death in the video.

Walking the NBC News crew around the charred remains of his family's tent, near burned-out vehicles and debris, Mohammed pointed to where Shaban and Alaa had slept, with items in the area consistent with the video seen online.

The site of the Israeli airstrike on the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital compound in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Wednesday.
Al-Aqsa hospital is one of the facilities supported by Médecins Sans Frontières, known as Doctors Without Borders in English. The organization told NBC News it does not have information about the IDF's allegations, but confirmed the strike hit an area for civilians and outpatients, describing the attack as "totally unacceptable."

"Hospitals should not be used by either warring party for military activities/purposes and should benefit from particular protection at all times," a spokesperson for the organization said.

Mohammed said Shaban had “nothing to do with politics.” He was dedicated to memorizing the Quran and had been a software engineering student before the war who had graduated at the top of his high school class.

Crushed by the hopelessness and harsh realities of the war, Shaban had started a GoFundMe campaign some months ago to pay for his family of seven to escape Gaza into Egypt, where he hoped to start a new life.

"Gaza is where dreams go to die," Shaban had written. This week, he was buried, wrapped in his mother's embrace.

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With the Hamas leader's death, Israel has removed one of its biggest and most capable enemies, fulfilling one of its primary aims in the war in Gaza.

Sinwar in 2021, during an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City.
Yahya Sinwar was the mastermind behind the 7 October attacks and one of Israel's most formidable enemies. His death means Israelis have killed two of their biggest foes in less than a month.
But Sinwar was unique in his ability to understand and torment the Israeli psyche. He spent years in jail studying the ways of his captors and becoming fluent in their language. He knew that to beat your enemy you must know them first.

He understood that Israel could be lulled into a false sense of security. Under his command Israelis were deceived into thinking Hamas wanted a period of calm, while in reality it was preparing for the biggest attack in either sides' history.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
He also knew Israeli society was hugely divided and exploited that weakness. The most extreme government in Israeli history under Benjamin Netanyahu was polarising the country like never before, pushing deeply controversial plans for reform.

And he realised that a diplomatic détente between Israel and former Arab enemies in the gulf and ultimately Saudi Arabia, threatened to marginalise the Palestinian cause.

According to internal Hamas documents reportedly leaked recently, Sinwar brought forward the attack plan he had devised. It would unleash a devastating assault on Israeli communities outside Gaza.
But it would not, as he had hoped, be joined in full force by Israel's other enemies, Hezbollah to the north and Iran. Their support would be more qualified.
For more than a year, Israel's military response to 7 October has failed to achieve its war objectives. It has not secured the release of all Israeli hostages. It has not destroyed Hamas and it had not decapitated its leadership.

Sinwar eluded Israeli efforts to kill him, apparently hiding in the labyrinth of tunnels Hamas dug under Gaza. While lieutenants were taken out one by one, Israel's ultimate prize remained at large.
Rumours that he was running the war from a secret base in northern Egypt were rife. His body being found in Jabaliya will surprise many.
Sinwar was without doubt a masterful strategist, a fanatical believer in his cause and ruthlessly brutal. He was said to have killed Palestinian rivals with his bare hands, throwing some from buildings and torturing others. He seemed to believe no method was beyond the pale if it furthered a cause he professed was sacred.

Israel has now removed one of its biggest and most capable enemies. Taking Sinwar's scalp gives Israelis the opportunity to start ending their war in Gaza, having fulfilled one of its primary aims. It is unlikely to do so immediately but Sinwar's demise almost certainly brings forward that day.

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Sha'aban al-Dalou - seen here in a selfie he took with members of his family - was killed when an Israeli strike set fire to his tent in central Gaza

Warning: This piece contains graphic descriptions of death and injury
There is no conscience. There is no humanity. There are only leaders who watch and do not act.

This is what Ahmed al-Dalou believes, as the images of his family burning replay in his mind. He says his life is gone. It died in the inferno of al-Aqsa compound with his boys and wife in the early hours of Monday 14 October.

In front of him on the ground is a shroud, wrapped around the body of Abdulrahman,12, his youngest son.

The child lingered in agony for four days after the fire, sparked by an Israeli strike. The day before he died Ahmed saw him in hospital and he was able to tell his father: “Don’t be worried, I am OK dad… I’m fine. Don’t be afraid.”
Ahmed is half speaking, half crying, as he talks of what has been taken from him.

“Three times I tried to pull him [Abdulrahman] out of the fire, but his body fell back into it.”

His older brother, Sha'aban, 19, and his mother, Alaa, 37, both died on the night of the fire.

Sha'aban became a new symbol of Gaza’s terrible suffering. Images of him writhing in agony as he burned to death in the family’s tent were shared around the world on social media.

There are burns all over Ahmed’s face and hands. The tone of his voice is high, a keening sound. Of the anonymous pilot who sent the missile, and the leaders who gave him orders, Ahmed said: “They broke my heart, and they broke my spirit… I wish the fire had burned me.”
The strike happened at about 01:15 local time last Monday (23:15 BST on Sunday).

The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas "command and control" centre in the al-Aqsa hospital compound in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

Hamas denies operating in hospitals.

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