The testimony of a young Palestinian girl who at the age of 12 experienced the horrors of war and saw her entire family perish is shocking.

Alma’s parents had already moved three times in order to avoid the bombings and keep their children safe when in their last shelter the building where they were sleeping collapsed due to bombing.

Watch the video on the BBC

“We were happy together as a family,” says Alma. We hugged each other when we were scared. I wish I could keep them all.

I didn’t have enough time with them.” says little Alma who is now staying at her uncle’s tent in Rafa.

In the morning on December 2, 2023, the 12-year-old Alma was pulled out by rescuers from the rubble of a five-story building in downtown Gaza City under which she had been trapped for more than three hours.

Alma was asking to rescue her family first, showing the crews where she was.

Alma’s words, who spoke to the BBC, are a flood of horror describing the loss she has experienced.

“I remember waking up under the rubble. I checked my iPad and saw it was 09:00. I hoped my brother Tarazan would still be alive.

I was calling him and hoping that one of my own would be alive. I could smell the blood. It was dripping on me. I was screaming for someone to save us. I could also hear others shouting.”

But after Alma was saved, she saw Tarazan’s body.

“I wish for death after seeing my brother like this, He was only 18 months old. What has he done in this war?” he says.

Tarazan was not her only loss. Her entire family had been killed side by side, her parents and three other siblings.

Another drama is added to the already horrific loss as the bodies of her family and others remain buried under the rubble.