Raghad al-Assar, 12, was mistakenly declared dead after a June 8, 2024 strike on her home in central Gaza and lay unconscious in a morgue for eight hours before being found alive. She spent two weeks in a coma and now suffers nightmares, fainting spells and anxiety. Two sisters were killed and other relatives injured; the family is seeking medical treatment abroad. The case highlights the broader humanitarian toll in Gaza, where UNICEF reports roughly 64,000 children have been killed or maimed and official tallies list more than 69,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023.
12-Year-Old Gaza Girl Found Alive in Morgue After Strike; Family Seeks Medical Care Abroad
Raghad al-Assar, 12, was mistakenly declared dead after a June 8, 2024 strike on her home in central Gaza and lay unconscious in a morgue for eight hours before being found alive. She spent two weeks in a coma and now suffers nightmares, fainting spells and anxiety. Two sisters were killed and other relatives injured; the family is seeking medical treatment abroad. The case highlights the broader humanitarian toll in Gaza, where UNICEF reports roughly 64,000 children have been killed or maimed and official tallies list more than 69,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023.
01:03 AM, 11/14/2025Conflict
12-Year-Old Gaza Girl Found Alive in Morgue After Strike
Twelve-year-old Raghad al-Assar was mistakenly declared dead after an Israeli strike on her home in central Gaza on June 8, 2024. She lay unconscious in a Gaza mortuary for eight hours before a man searching the morgue for his son noticed her fingers twitching and she was rushed for treatment.
“We were sitting in our home like everyone else when suddenly bullets, planes and drones came down on us,” Raghad told Al Jazeera.
Raghad spent two weeks in a coma. When she woke, her family told her she had been placed inside the morgue refrigerator. Two of her sisters were killed in the attack and several other relatives were injured.
Family impact: Her father, Mohammed, learned the house had been hit while at work. He and other relatives searched the rubble without finding Raghad until she was discovered in the mortuary. Mohammed says the experience has left his daughter with lasting psychological and physical symptoms, including fainting spells, nightmares and severe anxiety.
Raghad’s own words: “I don’t like to remember, don’t want to hear war sounds, and avoid things that bring back memories. If I hear bombing or planes, I get frightened,” she told reporters. The family hopes to secure medical treatment abroad for Raghad and her injured sister.
Wider context: Raghad’s story is one of many accounts from Gaza amid heavy fighting. United Nations experts have described the campaign in Gaza as amounting to genocide. According to UNICEF, roughly 64,000 children have been “reportedly killed or maimed” in Israeli strikes on the coastal territory. Official tallies say at least 69,187 Palestinians have been killed and 170,703 wounded in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023.
Two years of sustained bombardment have severely damaged Gaza’s health system, destroying medical facilities and killing hundreds of health workers. Although Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire last month, reports indicate that Israeli operations have continued in the enclave; at least 260 people have reportedly been killed since the truce began on October 10.
Note on language: Some interviewees use the term “martyred” to describe those killed; this text uses direct quotes where that term appears and otherwise uses neutral language like "killed" or "dead" to describe casualties.