There is a permanent wet mark on Wafaa Shamallakh’s hijab just below her face, where the maroon scarf drapes across her chest and cradles her tears.
They have flown endlessly as Wafaa tells Sky News that 16 members of her family have been killed in Gaza.
“Ten of them in one go,” she says, describing the night an “air strike” on Gaza killed her uncle’s entire family.
The family claims Israel was responsible.
Israel’s military says more deaths in Gaza are “inevitable”, but claims Hamas fighters are using Palestinians as cover.
“An air strike hit my uncle’s house with his whole family inside. My uncle, his wife, his five sons, his daughter-in-law, and his two grandchildren,” Wafaa says.
“The little one was two months old.”
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Abdel Naser Shamallakh, 56, lived in a big pink house in Sheikh Eljeen in southwest Gaza.
The exterior wall was decorated with green and yellow panels, with a thick grape vine hanging over the porch.
Abdel Naser’s grape harvest was famous among his neighbours who received gift boxes of them on a regular basis.
During the night on Sunday 8 October, the alleged air strike hit while the family were asleep.
The family home before the air strike
The remains of the property after the air strike
Israeli forces have carried out air strikes across the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on 7 October.
In recent days, more than 80 people have been killed in the south following Israeli airstrikes, according to the Hamas-run government.
Abdel Naser, his wife Soha, their five children Ahmed, 25, Marwan, 22, Asad, 10, Mohamed, 20, and Yazan, 10, died in the alleged air strike.
Ahmed Shamallakh
Asad Shamallakh
Ahmed’s wife Warda, 25, and their two young boys, Abdel Naser, aged two, and two-month-old Omar, also died.
“They found Mohammed’s body, and then Ahmed’s,” Wafaa says, before breaking down into tears.
“The rest of the family… my uncle, Asad, Marwan, they couldn’t find any of their bodies,” she says, telling Sky News that rescue workers explained nobody made it.
“They knew they found Warda because she was holding her two-month-old son. But they didn’t find my uncle Abdel Naser. They found body parts.”
Omar Shamallakh
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Wafaa described family WhatsApp groups where relatives post news from Gaza.
Getting information out is difficult when mobile phone signal is weak and the electricity has been cut off.
“People gather at households with solar panels so they can charge their phones, just so they can let their families know they are okay.”
The last message on the WhatsApp group reads in Arabic: “No. 16: Moreed Shamallakh died in his house.”
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Wafaa says the family are both eager for and dreading the next message.
Sometimes it brings good news – that another hour has passed without casualties.
But until the bombing of Gaza stops, there is always the threat of a number 17.
Wafaa says: “It hasn’t stopped, there is no ceasefire, so any time we can hear, something else bad has happened.”
