Palestinians mourn Gaza man burnt alive in Israeli strike on hospital

Following deadly Israeli airstrikes which targeted the Al-Aqsa Hospital and its vicinity in central Gaza which killed and injured scores of people on Sunday night, videos and photos of civilians being burned alive have gone viral, causing shock and outrage.

In particular, a photo of a person attached to an IV being engulfed by the flames has been widely shared.

The person has been revealed to be Sha'ban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old software engineering student in his second year at Al-Azhar University of Gaza. Both he and his mother perished in the fire.

"I did not recognise my mother when I saw her, and we had difficulty identifying Shaaban's body, as none of his features were clear, even his clothes were completely burned, and we did not find any sign of him," al-Dalou's brother, Mohammed, told The New Arab.

Mohammed, 15, survived the fire because he was outside the tent when it was struck. He says he was shocked when he heard that his family's tent was burning, prompting him to rush to the tent, hoping to get them out.

But as soon as he arrived at the scene, the teenager saw a huge fire burning and saw his brother and mother burning in front of his eyes, unable to get close to them.

His father and brothers were in the same tent, with his father trying to rescue his sister and younger brother. They all sustained burns from the flames. His mother was trying to put out the fire with her clothes.

"The fire completely consumed them, and nothing remained of them," Mohammed said.

"How can the world bear to see us killed and dying without doing anything? Where are the consciences of Arabs and Muslims? How can I continue my life without my brother and mother?"

"It [the Israeli army] targeted my civilian family who have no solution or power and deprived us of our mother who fought hard to save us from death."

Sha'ban Al-Dalou and his family had been displaced five times since Israel's assault on Gaza began and were sheltering in Al-Aqsa when the strike hit.

He previously survived an airstrike on a mosque that killed at least 20 civilians.

Like the Al-Dalou family, dozens of Palestinians were residing in the courtyard of the hospital in Deir Al-Balah in tents that were housing displaced civilians following evacuation orders from the Israeli army in northern Gaza.

Sha'ban had built the tent he and his family were sheltering in.

According to his Instagram account, @shabanahmed19, he was the eldest sibling of two sisters and two brothers and was responsible for providing for his parents and two younger siblings.

"We live in very hard circumstances, suffering from various things such as homelessness and limited food and extremely limited medicine, and the only thing between us and the freezing temperature is this tent that we constructed by ourselves," al-Dalou said in a video appealing for donations.

He was fundraising to help evacuate the family to Egypt until Israel's war was over.

Social media users denounced the attack and paid tribute to al-Dalou and the many people who were killed that night.

"Yesterday wasn't the first time Shaban cried out for the world's help as Israel burned him alive. He had been pleading for the world to save him because he was the sole provider for his family.

"Now, he's gone, leaving behind two sisters and a little brother with no one to care for them. Don't let his story be forgotten," political analyst and writer Yousef Alhelou wrote on X.

"His name was Sha'ban Al-Dalou…He was burnt alive in a tent after Israel bombed Al-Aqsa Hospital last night," said one social media user.

"Say his name Shaban. The man, the human, the soul behind the photo seen around the world. The man who was burnt alive by an evil regime, while being attached to an IV in a hospital. The word war crime doesn't even begin to cover this. He is not a number. Not one single person murdered is," said another.

The Gaza media office said it was the seventh time Israeli forces had targeted tents with patients and displaced families at the Al-Aqsa hospital.