Gaza Herald— The family of six-year-old Sundus Hillis said an Israeli sniper opened fire on the child during the November 3 ceasefire, striking her in the head while she was attending a wedding celebration in northern Gaza.
According to relatives, Sundus had been playing with other children on the first floor of a wedding hall in the Daraj neighborhood , an area far from the Israeli-designated “yellow zone” , proudly showing off her new clothes as the ceremony continued upstairs. Moments later, she suddenly collapsed.
Witnesses reported that panic swept the hall as gunfire tore through the celebration. Bullets sliced through the air, hitting the bridesmaid in the jaw and a cousin of the groom in the shoulder. The bride’s white gown became stained with blood, bringing the wedding to an immediate halt before it truly began.
Maria, the seven-year-old sister of the victim, rushed upstairs shouting that Sundus was “sleeping on the floor and not waking up.” Their mother ran desperately through the first floor searching for her daughter, but found only a pool of blood.
A phone call came from a relative: “We’re at the Baptist Hospital, come quickly,” her brother Ali told her.
As they rushed to the hospital, news alerts were already spreading: “Israeli sniper shoots child Sundus Hillis in the head.” The family still had no clear sense of what had happened.
When they reached the hospital, Sundus lay on a bed, her small face soaked in blood that had mixed with her makeup and the bright clothing she had been so proud to wear. Her mother begged her to wake up, but the little girl responded only with faint groans.
A nurse examining the wounds told her mother, “Two bullets to the head.”
The medical report later noted two entry holes, a single bullet, and loss of portions of the child’s brain , another tragedy, the family says, inflicted on Gaza’s children even during what was meant to be a ceasefire.
