Batoul Bsharat was playing with her eight-year-old brother Reda in their village in the occupied West Bank. Moments later an Israeli drone strike killed him and two of their cousins, AFP reports.

“It was the first time in our lives that we played without arguing. It meant so much to me,” the 10-year-old said as she sat on the concrete ledge outside the family home in the northern village of Tammun where they had been playing on Wednesday.

At her feet, a crater no wider than two fists marked where the missile hit.The wall behind her is pockmarked with shrapnel impacts and streaks of blood still stain the ledge.

Besides Reda, Hamza, 10, and Adam, 23, were also killed.

“Just before he was martyred, he started kissing and hugging me,” Batoul said.“I miss my brother so much. He was the best thing in the world.”

Her cousin Obay, 16, brother of Adam, was the first to come out and find the bodies, before Israeli soldiers came to take them away. “I went outside and saw the three of them lying on the ground,” he said. “I tried to lift them, but the army came and didn’t allow us to get close.”

Editorial

Updated 05 Aug, 2026

State of confusion

FROM the looks of it, America has no exit strategy to extricate itself from the disastrous war with Iran. US...
05 Aug, 2026

Pension decision

THE government’s decision to formally operationalise the new Defined Contribution Pension Fund Scheme is a step...
05 Aug, 2026

Preventable deaths

THE deaths of 144 children from measles and diphtheria in Karachi during the first seven months of the year expose a...
Updated 04 Aug, 2026

Swat bombing

IT is a bitter irony that terrorists struck a protest against violence in Swat on Sunday, causing at least 17...
04 Aug, 2026

Tariff blow

FOR an export sector already squeezed by high production costs, the additional 10pc tariff on top of the existing...
04 Aug, 2026

Perilous peaks

THE deaths of 10 climbers in an avalanche on Broad Peak is a sad reminder of the perils that many mountaineers face...