Jabaliya, Gaza Strip: Anwar Baalusha was sleeping when the mosque next door collapsed onto his house after an Israeli air strike. Beneath the rubble, he found the bodies of his five daughters.

The metal roof of his modest abode crumbled under the stones of the bombed mosque, which Israeli aviation hit late yesterday in this refugee camp in the north of the Hamas-run territory.

Five of the Baalusha girls -- four-year-old Jawaher, eight-year-old Dina, 12-year-old Samar, 14-year-old Ikram and 17-year-old Tahrir  perished under the ruins.

They became the latest civilian casualties of a massive Israeli bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, unleashed on Saturday in response to rocket fire from the overcrowded enclave.

Himself wounded in the strike, 37-year-old Anwar left the hospital to take part in the funeral of his daughters.

Leaning on two relatives, his body covered with wounds and bruises, he limped along in a sombre, hundreds-strong funeral procession that inched its way down the windy streets of the camp towards the cemetery.

"We were sleeping when I heard an enormous explosion and all of a sudden the mosque crashed on top of us," he said.

His voice shaking with emotion, he gives vent to his anger.

"If a single Israeli child was killed, the whole world would be indignant and the UN Security Council would meet," he says.

"The blood of our children has no value in the eyes of the world. This is a war crime, the enemy's leaders should face justice."

Source : PTI