Teen talks about the horror after his mother and brother were burned alive by an Israeli attack on the hospital in Gaza

When an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah caused a fire that ripped through a group of tents on Monday evening, 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalu was sleeping next to his mother, Alaa, 38.

In a video that circulated widely on social media, Shaban’s arms could be seen reaching out of the enveloping flames, chilling a world that watched him being burned alive.

In an interview with NBC News, Shaban’s 17-year-old brother, Mohammed al-Dalu, described the Israeli attack that killed his mother and brother, saying he saw something fall on Shaban’s leg, pinning him down. He tried to run into the tent to save his brother, but several men stopped him.

“Nobody let me see my brother Shaban,” he said. “My heart was burning.”

Their father, Ahmed al-Dalu, with his face covered in burn bandages and his right eye swollen shut, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that he was thrown from the tent by the impact of the blast but managed to run back to find his daughter and his youngest son from the tent before it went up in flames.

Shaban’s death was undoubtedly painful, but Muhammad told a gentler story: “The fire was cool and peaceful for him.” His mother, Mohammed said, ‘she continued to sleep. If the fire had burned her, she would have woken up and started screaming, but my mother, thank God, stayed asleep.”

Mohammed said his mother’s last words to him were good night: “My mother has woken up, but she is in heaven.”

The family had been displaced at least fifteen times before, and Shaban had been injured in another attack two weeks earlier. Wednesday would have been his twentieth birthday.

Shaban and Alaa were among the five killed. Dozens of others were injured, including Shaban’s father and three of his four siblings.

The video capturing Shaban’s final moments had a visceral impact on those who watched it and spread quickly on social media, with some calling for Israel to be held accountable for the attack as the country faces mounting pressure to to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip. , where more than 42,400 people have died in the past year, according to local health officials.

“Burn people to death while they sleep in tents?” wrote one person. “Humanitarian organizations and all Western governments must condemn Israel and immediately withdraw all support.”

Israel “is committing a horrific genocide while Western leaders are complicit in the deaths of families, innocent children and entire bloodlines,” said another.

Israel has been accused of genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for its actions in Gaza. Both Israel and the US have denied the accusation.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described the images of people being burned alive during a news briefing on Tuesday as “deeply disturbing.”

“We’ve all seen that video. … It’s horrific to see people burning to death,” Miller said. “We have expressed our serious concerns about the matter directly to the government of Israel.”

The Israeli military said in a statement that the army targeted the compound because Hamas militants allegedly used the hospital as a “command and control” center. The IDF provided no evidence to support the claim and NBC News was unable to verify the statement.

Mohammed confirmed in the video that it was his brother and their mother who were burned.

As he led the NBC News crew around the charred remains of his family’s tent, Near burned vehicles and debris, Mohammed pointed to where Shaban and Alaa had been sleeping, with items in the area consistent with the video seen online.

Al-Aqsa Hospital is one of the facilities supported by Doctors Without Borders, known in English as Doctors Without Borders. The organization told NBC News that it has no information about the IDF’s allegations, but confirmed that the attack hit an area for civilians and outpatients, describing the attack as “totally unacceptable.”

“Hospitals may not be used by any of the warring parties for military activities/purposes and must enjoy special protection at all times,” a spokesperson for the organization said.

Mohammed said Shaban “had nothing to do with politics.” He was devoted to memorizing the Qur’an and had been a software engineering student before the war, graduating at the top of his high school class.

Crushed by the hopelessness and harsh reality of war, Shaban had started a GoFundMe campaign several months ago to pay for his family of seven’s flight from Gaza to Egypt, where he hoped to start a new life.

“Gaza is the place where dreams die,” Shaban had written. This week he was buried wrapped in his mother’s embrace.