GAZA, Thursday, April 25, 2024 (WAFA) – A Palestinian teen Wednesday died of a sunstroke crossing the safe corridor from the city of Gaza to Rafah, according to media sources.

They said that 19-year-old Lara Jeries Sayegh suffered from a severe sunstroke as she was crossing the safe corridor from the Gaza City neighbourhood of az-Zaytoun to Rafah and ultimately to Egypt.

Displaced as a result of the ongoing Israeli offensive on Gaza, Sayegh had been staying at the accommodation centre of the church in az-Zaytoun neighbourhood for over six months.

She was accompanied by her mother, and they were supposed to exit the blockaded war-torn Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing after they paid thousands of US dollars in coordination fees to the Egyptian authorities.

Lara, the sources added, lost consciousness due to the intense heat and lack of water, as the Israeli occupation forces obstructed the ambulance crew from reaching her and her mother, causing her to die and her mother to lapse into a coma.

Not only did the occupation forces deny Lara emergency treatment, but they also have prevented her body from being transported to be buried at her church, surrounded by her family.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, killing at least 34,305 Palestinians and injuring over 77,293 others.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

K.F.