A Little Girl Watches Her Mother Burn Alive in Gaza During a So-Called Ceasefire At dawn today, Israeli warplanes struck an apartment belonging to the Awad family in Gaza City. A massive fire broke out, leaving several family members dead or injured. As people searched for those still missing, they heard a little girl screaming. When they reached her, they found her sitting on her bed, watching helplessly as her mother burned alive in front of her. I cannot begin to imagine what that little girl went through. I cannot put myself in her place, not even for a second. What happens to a child’s mind when she watches her mother burn to death before her eyes? How does she ever recover from something like that? And what could this cruel, complicit world possibly do to make up for even a moment of such horror? The little girl was pulled from the fire alive. But I cannot bring myself to call that survival. Something inside her must have died in that room, something she may never get back. She will grow up carrying the memory of that night, of sitting on her bed, screaming for her mother as the flames consumed her. That may be the last image she ever has of the woman who brought her into this world. My God. How is a child supposed to live with that?