A young Palestinian girl was pulled from the flames of her home in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike killed her mother, leaving her orphaned and suffering burns in yet another devastating attack on civilians despite a ceasefire.
Maryam Ahmed Ghanem was trapped inside a burning apartment in the al-Rimal neighbourhood, west of Gaza City, in the early hours of Wednesday, as flames and thick smoke engulfed the building following the Israeli strike.
Her father had already been killed earlier in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. Now, with her mother, Reem Awad, killed in the latest attack, Maryam has been left without either parent.
Harrowing footage captured by Palestinian journalist Ali al-Jaafrawi showed the young girl sitting helplessly amid the flames, crying as rescuers desperately struggled to reach her.
"There are children screaming alive inside," al-Jaafrawi cried as he approached the burning apartment.
“There are children crying inside the fire,” a volunteer screams. A woman has been killed and three children wounded by Israeli bombing of an apartment in Gaza City.. https://t.co/SRhsiQ3qqQ
— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) October 14, 2026
In an account given to Al Jazeera Arabic, the journalist said he had been at al-Shifa Hospital when he heard an Israeli helicopter overhead, followed by an explosion.
He rushed towards the sound and reached the targeted apartment building on al-Nasr Street before emergency crews arrived.
"I went up to the apartment. There were flames everywhere. I went in despite the fire and smoke and heard a little girl screaming inside. I went in, found her and rescued her immediately," he said.
"I carried her and handed her to people so they could take her to hospital."
Al-Jaafrawi said he returned to the apartment in an attempt to rescue others but was overcome by the smoke.
"I went back to rescue others and to document what happened, but I suffocated and lost consciousness because of the thick smoke. I saw a woman on fire inside the apartment," he said.
He later learned that the girl he had rescued was Maryam, whose father had been killed at the beginning of the war and whose mother had died in Wednesday's bombing.
Photographs shared after the rescue showed Maryam with visible burns to her face and bandages covering parts of her body.
She had survived the flames, but emerged into a world in which both her parents had been killed.
According to local journalists, Maryam's mother died in the strike, while at least two other people, including a child, were wounded and taken to al-Shifa Hospital.
The bombing caused extensive damage to the apartment and neighbouring buildings, while civil defence crews battled the fire before eventually extinguishing it.
The attack took place despite a ceasefire that came into effect in October 2025, which Israel has repeatedly violated through continued strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the attack on Wednesday, urging members of the US Congress to speak out against the killing of Maryam's mother and the horrifying scenes captured on camera.
“The horrific video of a little girl surrounded by fire as her mother burns to death in their home exemplifies the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We cannot comprehend how any political leader with a conscience could continue to fund the sheer cruelty of the Israeli government and the war criminals who carry out its orders,” the statement reads.
“Members of Congress must condemn this atrocity and demand an immediate end to all U.S. support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” it continued.
Maryam's ordeal has drawn attention to the suffering of Gaza's children, thousands of whom have been orphaned, wounded or permanently disabled by Israel's war.
Gaza's devastated healthcare system faces critical shortages of medicines, antibiotics and medical supplies, while restrictions on movement have prevented many seriously wounded Palestinians from accessing treatment abroad.
Around 42,000 people in Gaza are living with serious, lasting injuries, including amputations and severe burns, requiring prolonged rehabilitation.
At least 1,498 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,300 wounded in Israeli attacks since the so-called "ceasefire" came into effect, according to the figures cited in local reporting.
