Mena Eyad Fathi Sharir

Their life

Mena Eyad Fathi Sharir, a 2-year-old girl from the al-Manara neighborhood in Gaza City, succumbed to wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike on May 11, 2021, which destroyed her family’s home on al-Nafaq Street. The airstrike also killed her father Eyad, her mother Layali Taha ‘Abbas Sharir (41), and her older sister Lina (16). Mena survived the initial attack but passed away a week later on May 18, 2021. The strike was part of a larger series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted residential areas in Gaza, causing extensive casualties and destruction.

Mena Eyad Fathi Sharir was a toddler living with her family in the densely populated al-Manara neighborhood on al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City. She was the youngest daughter of Eyad Sharir and Layali Taha ‘Abbas Sharir, and had an older sister, Lina Eyad Fathi Sharir, aged 16. On May 11, 2021, the family’s two-story home was struck by an Israeli missile during a military campaign targeting various areas in Gaza.

The missile caused the building to collapse on its residents. Eyad, Layali, and Lina were killed instantly, with Lina’s body recovered in a severely mutilated state. Mena survived the initial bombing but was critically injured. Despite medical efforts, she succumbed to her wounds a week later, on May 18, 2021. The area around the family home sustained heavy damage due to the blast, and 25 others were wounded in the vicinity.

The Israeli military claimed that Eyad was a leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, framing the strike as a targeted assassination. However, this attack resulted in

How they died

Mena Eyad Fathi Sharir died from wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike that destroyed her family’s home.

On May 11, 2021, Israeli airstrikes targeted the family home on al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City. The missile hit caused the two-story house to collapse, killing Mena’s father Eyad, mother Layali, and sister Lina immediately. Mena initially survived the bombing but suffered severe injuries. Despite receiving medical treatment, the extent of her wounds led to her death a week later, underscoring the prolonged suffering caused by such military operations in civilian areas.

A plea from the family

The loss of Mena, along with her parents Eyad and Layali, and her sister Lina, has left surviving relatives and neighbors in profound grief and outrage. Family members have spoken of their heartbreak at losing so many loved ones in a single devastating strike. Eyad’s extended family has called on the international community to recognize the innocence of their loved ones and to hold accountable those responsible for the attack. They emphasize that Mena was just a toddler, and her family were civilians, not combatants, questioning how such a tragedy could be justified. Neighbors and community members in the al-Manara neighborhood mourn the family as symbols of the immense civilian suffering caused by the conflict. Many have expressed: “How can children and families be targeted like this? They were not soldiers; they were our neighbors, our friends, our children. The world must see this injustice and act.”

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Mena Eyad Fathi Sharir, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources