Roller-skating girl with ‘many dreams’ killed in Gaza attack

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Hussam Salah Abu Ajwa initially refused to let his daughter go outside to play, but eventually he gave in and let her skate around on her pink skates near their home in Gaza City.

Two minutes later, he heard the bang of an impact that made ten-year-old girl Tala Abu Ajwa the youngest child in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“She begged me and said, 'Please, dad, let me go out.' I was sad because she wanted to play with the girls in the neighborhood,” Hussam told AFP after the strike on Tuesday.

When he heard the explosion, he ran outside, but “when I reached the bombed apartment, I found her among the rubble,” he said.

“I recognized her by her roller skates, the only thing visible.”

Details of the strike were unclear.

A photo of Tala has since circulated on social media, with her skates, with white Velcro straps and pink wheels, protruding from under a white sheet covering her dead body.

Due to the mass displacement during the war and the destruction of schools, children throughout the Gaza Strip no longer have any opportunities for leisure activities.

More than 70 percent of the schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been destroyed or damaged, said agency chief Philippe Lazzarini on X this week.

“The longer children stay out of school, the higher the risk of a lost generation, which fuels resentment and extremism,” said Lazzarini.

“Without a ceasefire, children are likely to become victims of exploitation, including child labor and recruitment into armed groups.”

For Tala, the problem was more fundamental: she simply didn't like being locked in the house all the time, Hussam says.

“She was happy, always laughing and loved going out,” he said.

“She had many dreams. She always asked me for many things and I responded to her requests. She told me, 'I want a pair of skates,' so I brought them to her.”

The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. This attack killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, including hostages killed in captivity. This is according to a count by the AFP news agency based on official Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 are still in Gaza, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, at least 40,878 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, most of the dead are women and children.

Now that Tala has died, her parents and brothers can only wonder about their bad luck: the lightning strike occurred on one of the rare occasions when Hussam let one of his children outside.

“She always said to me, 'Why don't we live like all the other children in the world? I wish we could live a peaceful life. We don't want wars, Mom. I'm fed up with wars,'” recalled her mother Umm Tala.

“She was one of the best students and she was outstanding, she was very intelligent. She always said to me, 'I would love to be able to go to the park and play.' She's dead and so are her wishes.”

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