GAZA CITY — Seven-year-old Hala Lubbad is hospitalized at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after an Israeli attack on June 2, 2026, killed her parents and two siblings. She sustained severe burns and critical injuries to her hands and feet in the incident.

Hala's 42-year-old father, a policeman, and her 40-year-old mother, a teacher, died in the attack on the family's home in Gaza City. Two of her siblings, aged 10 and 17, were also killed. Hala and her 16-year-old brother Mohammed were the sole survivors.

Hala has undergone several operations at al-Shifa Hospital, according to her aunt, Haneen Lubbad. Doctors have advised that Hala requires medical treatment and rehabilitation abroad to prevent further deterioration of her condition and possible loss of fingers.

Hala frequently asks about her parents. "Where is my mother? Where is my father?" she said. "She asks about them every day," Lubbad said. "She says: 'I want my mother, I want my father. I want to talk to them.'

Lubbad expressed concern about revealing the full extent of the tragedy to Hala. "If she hears it all at once, she may collapse," she said. "Hala was there among them … she was the only one who survived, along with her brother Mohammed, 16 years old." "The rest are gone."

Since October 2023, UNICEF reports that at least 21,289 Palestinian children have been killed and 44,500 wounded in Gaza. The United Nations estimates that 17,000 children have been orphaned or separated from their parents or primary caregivers in Gaza during the same period. UNICEF also reported that at least 60 boys and 40 girls were killed in Gaza during the first three months of a ceasefire announced in October 2025.