This week, 24-year-old US-Palestinian Zarefah Baroud who lives in Seattle, Washington, lost six members of her extended family.

They were in Khan Younis in southern Gaza during bombardments on Monday afternoon.

Five of them were under the age of 18.

“They were having a party, they had just gotten out of the celebration. My cousin Anas was 18, he had just finished high school and started his first semester at the university,” she recalls.

“My other cousin Walid, who was 15, had just finished memorizing the entire Quran. They were very intelligent and very motivated and an incredible family.”

Through tears she tells of how other young relatives had to pull the bodies from the rubble.

She believes many other relatives have been killed, after losing communication with family on Wednesday. She says that phone battery life is “like gold” as there is no electricity in the areas they are in.

Baroud explains why her relatives did not want to leave Gaza City despite Israeli warnings to evacuate northern Gaza: “They believed this was either to be a trap, as they would be hit in their cars en route, or that they preferred to be murdered in their home than to live perpetually as refugees.”