Gazan Child Burned in Fire Treated at Israeli Hospital as Hamas Points Fingers

Ramat Gan (TPS) – A Palestinian child with severe burns is being treated in an Israeli hospital after a devastating house fire in Gaza took the lives of his three young siblings on Saturday. The tragedy has shaken the Gaza Strip and spurred angry finger pointing among the two dominant Palestinian factions, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah.

Ahmed Al-Hendi, 7, was taken to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan on Sunday evening, a spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed to Tazpit Press Service (TPS), following the fire caused by candles used during a local power shortage.

Ahmed was severely burned in the fire, which tragically claimed the lives of his three young siblings—three-year-old Yusra, two-year-old Rahaf, and two-month-old Nasir.

“We were at the beach and came home to find there was no electricity again,” Mohammed Al-Hendi, the children’s father, told Al Jazeera at the funeral. “They were sleeping, and I went out to bring dinner. When I came home, they told me my children were burned alive.”

Ahmed will have to undergo multiple therapies before making a full recovery, though he is no longer in critical condition, Sheba Medical Center Spokeswoman Adi Cohen told TPS.

At the funeral procession, Hamas leaders cited the energy crisis in the Gaza Strip and placed the blame on Israel as well as on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s administration. Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority of making the power outages worse by imposing taxes on fuel for Gaza’s power plant, which has caused Gaza residents to spend 18 hours a day without power.

A press release by Hamas Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri accused Abbas and the Palestinian Authority of hoarding electricity for themselves. The PA, meanwhile, dismissed the Hamas charges as “false accusations.”

“Their guilt can only be erased when they exempt Gaza from fuel taxes and consent to new Israeli feeder lines,” Abu Zuhri said.