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- Country of residence: Palestine
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Dalia Khalifa, a nine-year-old girl, was sitting in the living room of her family’s home in the Zaytoun neighborhood in the besieged Gaza Strip, when the Israeli shell fell on top of her and her family’s heads during Operation Protective Edge, which the Israeli army launched in Gaza last summer.
At dawn on August 1, 2014, Dalia was rushed to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where her family members - and many Gazans - were receiving treatment.
Inside the hospital, blood was covering every inch of Dalia’s childish body, and she was unable to open her eyes. In those difficult moments, she embraced her younger sister, Remas, who clung to her and shouted, “I love you.” In the midst of this tense situation, Dalia did not realize where she was and what was surrounding her. , until I gradually began to recover.
Muhammad Asaad, a photojournalist from Gaza, told Dalia’s story, as he happened to be with her in the same hospital, while he was documenting civilian casualties as a result of the Israeli military attack. Asaad said, “When I saw Dalia, the image of the Afghan girl, Sharbat Jula, immediately jumped to my mind” in A reference to the famous Steve McCurry photo published in National Geographic.
Asaad took a picture of Dalia on August 9, 2014, and what struck her was her lack of crying and the strength she showed despite the wounds from the shrapnel that had been carved into her face. He called the picture “The Stick of Tears,” and the name was translated into English to become “Unbreakable,” and the picture won the award. The Grand Spirit of Humanity Photography Competition organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Middle East and North Africa.
Asaad met Dalia again after she and her family left the hospital, and took new pictures of her with her family and school friends. Asaad noted that Dalia “is still strong to this day,” and added, “Her question to the Israelis: What did we do to deserve this from you?”
Dalia’s mother, Umm Zuhair, and her father, Rizk, recalled the events of that tragic night and narrated them to Asaad. Umm Zuhair says, “A tank shell fell on our house at about three o’clock in the morning without warning. We were all sleeping in the living room in the middle of the house, and it was God’s will alone.” It kept us all alive,” she added, “but the children were injured by the shell, and the neighbors rushed to their rescue and took them to the hospital.”
Dalia's father indicated that although some of the shrapnel marks on her face are fading, her body is still full of shrapnel scars, and what is worse is the case of Dalia's younger sister Remas, who suffered injuries to the skull. He added that the two girls need medical attention and surgeries. Cosmetic surgery, but the closure of the borders with Egypt and Israel prevented them from traveling to receive treatment in Turkey, and specialized doctors are not willing to come to the besieged Gaza Strip to treat the two girls.
“Dalia’s face sums up the pain of the children of Gaza, but it also depicts the endless beauty and courage of a generation that seems determined to withstand in the face of insurmountable hardships,” said Palestinian writer and journalist Ramzi Baroud. He added, “Life did not stop for the nine-year-old girl, as she returned to school, and the shrapnel... That spread throughout every inch of her thin body is a testament to the unbreakable will of post-war Gaza. If it does not surrender, it cannot be defeated.”
Asaad, who documented and widely publicized the plight of Palestinian civilians during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza, himself suffered the destruction of his home as a result of the Israeli attack, and on another occasion, narrowly escaped death when a missile from an Israeli drone fell just meters away from him. As a result, one child was killed next to him and two people were injured.
Baroud says, “Mohamed Asaad is a talented photographer who conveys the story in which he himself lives. He documents the suffering he experiences, draws the faces of the wounded, as in the picture of Dalia, and carries within him the scars of war and displacement.” He added, “Dalia and Muhammad are Gaza’s eternal hope.”
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