Tragedy on Wheels: A Father’s Plea for Peace After Losing His Child to War in Gaza
Tala Abu Azwa: A 10-Year-Old’s Dream Cut Short by War
WARNING: This story contains graphic images of death.
Husam Abu Azwa, 43, holds a pair of pink roller skates, stained with blood, the last gift he gave to his daughter Tala. A 10-year-old girl died while rollerblading in Gaza City on September 4. Her father says she was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building near where her family lived.
A photo of the child wearing a white jumpsuit and showing off pink skates quickly went viral online.
“That day she insisted (on playing outside) and I agreed,” Abu Azwa said in the footage shared with CBC.
“But… the missiles of the (Israeli) occupation forces are faster than children who want to play and be happy.”
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 10,000 children have died in the past 11 months of the Israel-Hamas war. OCHA uses figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. The figures are not broken down by cause of death.
The Israel Defense Forces said they were “not aware of any specific attacks” at coordinates provided by the CBC, but said they had attacked “Hamas snipers from the Zeitun Battalion” near the area that day.
Abu Azwa said, “I pray to God that Tala’s blood will help stop the war.”
“And Tala will be the last child to die for no reason.”
‘All I could see was blood on her skates.’
Tala is the latest casualty in a war that began on October 7 when a Hamas-led offensive in southern Israel killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip. Israel’s subsequent offensive into Gaza has killed 41,000 people, according to Palestinian figures.
Abu Azwa regretted his decision to give in and send Tala out to play, but he told El Saife that they were in a safe area in the north and he did not want to burden her further with the war.
While Tala was outside, Abu Azwa said he heard the explosion and ran to find her. With a crowd of people gathered to help, he pulled his daughter out of the rubble.
“I went out… all I could see was blood on her skates.”
After her family found her body, they rushed her to a nearby hospital. Her little body was lying on a stretcher, her jeans soaked in blood, and her skates still tied to her feet. Doctors treated the child while her father sobbed.
Tala succumbed to her injuries and died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
Footage of the young girl skating in circles around her neighborhood quickly went viral on social media, along with photos showing pink skates poking out of the white shroud that covered her body after her death.
“We want our children to play like children all over the world and be happy like children all over the world,” said Abu Azwa.
‘A simple dream’
In the hospital courtyard, Tala’s body lay on the floor as her parents said their final goodbyes to her. Her mother, Hadil, hugged her and kissed her face as tears streamed down her face. She whispered to her, hoping for answers that would never come.
Abu Azwa held back tears as he said his daughter wanted to grow up and become a dentist to treat her father in his old age.
“It’s free, Dad, don’t worry,” she would tell him, he said.
One of her favorite hobbies was writing letters, which she and her younger brother would send to their father.
Her letters detailed her “simple dreams” of driving a car, eating out, and going to the beach.
“For other people, this is not a dream, it is the norm,” he said. “(But) for the Gaza children, this is a dream.
“And as you can see, Tala’s dream did not come true.”