“My name is Jihad Mohammad El-Saloul. I’m 49 years old, and work as a teachers. I’m a neighbor of Dr. Nabil Abu Salmeya. Tonight at approximately 2:45 in the morning, I heard a small explosion. My wife, our children, and I woke up. I thought it was a sound bomb. My children were standing near the window. After about 10 minutes I heard a second explosion. The glass fell over our heads. I got out of the house to see what happened. One of our neighbors is Ahmad Bahar “Abu Akram,” a political leader in Hamas. I thought the explosion was in his home. As I walked, I was surprised that the explosion was in Dr. Nabil Abu Salmeya’s house. I went towards the bombed house. Smoke and thick dust was issuing from the house. I saw an injured,  bearded man among the rubble (El-Ja’bari). We put him in a blue Fiat with 3 young men from among the neighbors. After that, I went to help save others.

We found Abu Salmeya’s  son Ahmad, who studies engineering at university. He was injured in the face. He was in pain, and was standing on the balcony of the bombed house. He was calling us. We took him to an ambulance. After that I saw a girl, Abu Salmeya’s daughter, who was about 17. She was handicapped. Her body was thrown on the ground, between the trees in the garden.

 

Then we found the body of his son, Yehya, who is in fourth grade. It was a headless body. We found the head in the hallway of a neighbor’s house, from Abass family. I knew Yehya and the girl well.

Then I found another son. He was dead and on the ground. Then we found the body of the mother. He leg was torn off. Then we found two arms of a man among the trees.

As to the house next to Abu Salmeya’s house, it belongs to my neighbor Rajih Abbas. Most of the household was injured by glass and brick shrapnel. We took out an elderly woman (65) who is  

Rajih’s mother. She injured in the leg, which was broken. We took out a child from the same room, from under the rubble and dust. The child was still breathing. I couldn’t believe that the child was still alive.

The Civil Defense Corps started to search the rubble immediately after the bombardment. At approximately 7:00 in the morning, they found Awad Nabil Abu Salmeya (19), who studies engineering. He was suffering from moderate injuries. He survived by a miracle.

Dr. Abu Salmeya’s family consisted of 11 members: himself, his wife, 5 girls, and 4 boys. We only saw his sons Mohammad and Awad. Till now, we don’t know anything about 3 of his girls, who are still under the debris.

This is a residential area. Even if there were one or two wanted (activists), how can a whole neighborhood be targeted and bombed by planes, causing all this death and destruction to us, them and neighbors who are civilians. They do not want to kill the wanted, but to destroy civilians, kill them, and terrorize them.

The house is built on an area of 200 square meters. It is two parts. The southern part is old, and consists of a ground floor and a second floor. The second part is an open area with two rooms and a salon for the children. The southern part was targeted. The deaths were there.