Israel kills roller-skating girl with 'lots of dreams' in Gaza strike

At first Palestinian father Hussam Salah Abu Ajwa resisted letting his daughter out to play, but finally he relented so she could zip around on her pink skates near their Gaza City home.

Within two minutes he heard the boom of an Israeli strike that made the girl, 10-year-old Tala Abu Ajwa, the latest child fatality in Tel Aviv's ongoing genocidal war in Gaza that has killed and wounded tens of thousands of Palestinians.

"She begged me and said, 'Please, Daddy, let me go out'. I felt sad because she wanted to play with the girls" in the neighbourhood, Hussam told the AFP news agency after the Israeli strike on Tuesday.

Upon hearing the blast he raced outside, but "when I reached the flat that had been bombed, I found her among the rubble", he said.

"I recognised her by her roller skates, the only thing that was visible."

A photograph of Tala has since circulated widely on social media, the skates with white velcro straps and pink wheels sticking out from underneath a white cloth covering her dead body.

Mass wartime displacement and destruction of schools by Israel have deprived children across Gaza of chances for recreation.

More than 70 percent of schools operated by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, have been destroyed or damaged by Israel, agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said on X this week.

"The longer children stay out of school, the higher the risk of a lost generation, fuelling resentment & extremism," Lazzarini said.

"With no ceasefire, children are likely to fall prey to exploitation including child labour and recruitment into armed groups."

'We don't want wars, Mum'

For Tala, the problem was more basic: she simply did not like being cooped up indoors all the time, Hussam said.

"She was cheerful and always liked to laugh, and loved to get out of the house," he said.

"She had lots of dreams. She was always asking me for lots of things and I responded to her requests. She told me. 'I want a pair of skates', so I brought them for her."

In its ongoing carnage in the tiny enclave, Israel has killed at least 40,878 Palestinians and wounded nearly 100,000, according to the Palestinian officials.

But many experts and studies say this is a conservative estimate and the actual death toll is beyond 90,000 or even around 190,000.

The UN rights office says most of the victims of Israeli war are women and children.

Now that Tala is gone, her parents and brothers are left to marvel at their bad luck, with the Israeli strike landing during one of the rare occasions Hussam let one of his children go outside.

"She used to say 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, Mum. I've had enough of wars'," her mother, Umm Tala, recalled.

"She was one of the best pupils and she excelled, she was very intelligent. She used to say to me: 'I'd like to be able to go to the park and play.' She's dead and so are her wishes."