After surviving airstrike Palestinian boy dies seeking aid

STORY: Just five months after 13-year-old Zein Oroq survived an Israeli airstrike that destroyed his family home in Gaza and killed 17 members of his extended family, the teenager is dead.

Last week, Zein rushed to an airdrop of aid - hoping to get fava beans, rice or flour.

Instead, he was struck by a package and succumbed to his wounds in hospital on Sunday (April 14).

Here’s his father, Mahmoud Oroq.

“While parachutes were falling, an aid box hit his head. Also the stampede of people who were heading towards the box did not pay attention to the boy, they were also hungry. So, his head was cut and wounded. He got fractures in his pelvis, skull and abdomen and with the flow of people, the pressure increased on him.”

Zein’s grandfather, Ali Oroq, recalls how his grandson would swim into this pond of wastewater trying to retrieve aid packages.

“Zein, may he rest in peace, went swimming to get a meal,” he says. “What forced this child who should have been sitting at a desk in a school?”

Ali blames the U.S. for the death of 17 members of his extended family back in November and his grandson’s death in April.

“They were hit by rockets sent by the Americans. They killed my family and send meals for those who are left and the one who followed the meal died as a child," he says.

More than six months of fighting between Israel and Hamas has left Palestinians in Gaza facing severe shortages of medicine, food and water.

The tiny enclave is now at risk of famine.

MAHMOUD: “My son is so precious, he was my support, my entire life, my first joy in this world, my biggest child, may he rest in peace.”