GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An editor for a local newspaper was among 13 Palestinian journalists killed during Israel’s war on Gaza. Mohammed Daher, the financial editor for Al-Resalah newspaper, succumbed to his wounds on July 31 after spending 10 days in intensive care at al-Shifa Hospital.

“We were sitting in the room near the door. We could hear shells, shrapnel and nails scattering over the rooftop all night, and we were waiting for the morning to come,” Shaima, his pregnant wife who survived the attack, told Al-Monitor.

Shaima also lost her in-laws, brother, two sisters-in-law and 1-year-old daughter Dana in the attack. Shaima remembers Dana kissing her more than usual on the night of July 20, hours after her family became the target of a massacre perpetrated in the Shajaiya district, after a shell randomly hit their home and led to the collapse of three floors over the heads of the eight-member family.

Unlike others in the area, Mohammed’s family did not escape the neighborhood of death in the darkness of the night or at the crack of dawn. They were caught off guard by a shell on Sunday before noon. Their apartment building was set ablaze, then a heavy explosion was heard and the building started falling apart over their heads, burying them alive under the rubble.