The Palestinian Burned Alive When Israel Bombed Displacement Tents Has Been Identified As A 19-Year-Old
Shaaban Al-Dalu, who was was studying to be a software engineer, was killed just two days before his 20th birthday.
The Palestinian person who was seen being burned alive by an Israeli airstrike on displacement tents in Gaza has been identified as a 19-year-old young man named Shaaban Al-Dalu.
Al-Dalu was killed on Monday, Oct. 14 when Israel bombed tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah city in central Gaza.
The night time attack ignited a fire that set several tents on fire as people were sleeping, killing four people and injuring at least 70 others, including children who suffered severe burns.
Viral videos showed a person, later identified as Al-Dalu, being engulfed by flames while still connected to an IV drip as people struggled to approach due to the fire’s intensity.
The fire killed Al-Dalu, who was studying to be a software engineer, just two days before his birthday.
It also killed his mother.
“He was always there for me. I couldn’t do anything to save him. People held me back,” Al-Dalu’s 16-year-old brother, Mohammed, told Al Jazeera.
Before being killed, Al-Dalu had already survived another Israeli bombing of a mosque on Oct. 6, which left him with severe injuries that required him to be attached to an IV drip.
When Israel began its genocide in Gaza, Al-Dalu and his family, including his parents and four siblings, were forced from their homes at least five times and ended up living in a tent for displaced at the Al-Aqsa hospital.
As the oldest child, Al-Dalu took on the responsibility of taking care of his family. He even started a GoFundMe page to help them flee Gaza for Egypt.
In September, Al-Dalu began pursuing a degree in software engineering from his tent at Al-Azhar University. He managed to score 93.18% on his exams, ranking in the top 10 of his class.
To gain access to a stable internet connection, he had to walk almost 30 km daily, often while injured and dehydrated due to Israeli attacks.
Al-Dalu had also earned the title of Hafiz, an Arabic term for someone who has memorized the entire Quran.
Al-Dalu’s killing and bombing of the hospital has drawn widespread condemnation from activists and other public figures.