On 3 January 2009, the Al Err Family tried to flee their home in Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip on a donkey-drawn cart.
The cart was hit by an Israeli shell while they were preparing it.
Leila Al Err, 35, and her stepson, Nahedh, 27 survived the attack.
Leila’s husband Mohammed, 47, and two of her children, Ibrahim, 11 and Rakan, 4, were killed instantly.
Another of Leila’s children, Fida’, 17, and Nahedh’s wife, Iman, 25, bled to death   while Israeli forces refused to allow medical teams to access the area.
The survivors were left trapped in a neighbour’s house with the dead bodies for five days until ordered to leave the area by Israeli forces.
Al Mezan interviewed Leila and Nahedh, almost a year after the attack.
    The Al Err Family “I have four girls who are alive.
I have two boys and another girl who are dead.
I don’t feel as though they are dead.
I still talk to them.
I tell them everything I used to tell them before.
I still buy them clothes.
They aren’t dead.
They’re just away.
They are going to come back,” says Leila before her stepson, Nahedh, gently led her out of the room before coming back to explain, “Leila has become very unstable.
She has sort of lost her mind.
I think it’s because they bulldozed her children in front of her.
She went hysterical at that point.
She used to have a strong personality.
I think that if there hadn’t been Israeli bulldozers, she would have been able to survive this.
”    Trying to Flee At 5.
15pm on 3 January 2009 as the Israeli ground offensive began, an artillery shell hit the Al Err family’s barn; the explosion shook the entire house.
As the family tried to flee on a donkey-drawn cart, another shell struck, landing in the middle of the cart.
In April 2009, Nahedh explained what happened to Al Mezan, “I looked at the donkey cart and saw that it was turned upside down, its wheels in the air and the donkey dead.
I looked at my wife Iman and saw her face covered in blood and her eyes wide open.
I saw my sister Fida’ on the ground about four metres away with her face and back covered in blood.
I could not see Ibrahim, Rakan and my father (Mohammed).
” Those who could, escaped to a neighbour’s house (Mohammed Al ‘Atawni), where they called for an ambulance.
Ibrahim was already dead; his body dismembered.
Iman, Fida’ and Nahedh were injured.
Mohammed and Rakan couldn’t be found.
At around 6.
00pm, when the ambulance still hadn’t arrived, Nahedh decided to go for help, hopping on one leg.
He came across an ambulance and begged the medics to rescue his family but they were unable to and instead took him to Al Awda hospital for treatment.
    Trapped in Jabalia   Fida’ died from her injures the same day.
Iman was bleeding profusely and died the next day at around 1.
30pm.
Unable to escape because of the shelling and shooting, the Al Err and Al ‘Atawni families remained trapped with the dead bodies for five days.
On 8 January, Israeli forces started to bulldoze the Al Err and Al ‘Atawni houses with the survivors still inside.
Nahedh found out what happened when he later reunited with his family, “The Israelis ordered them to leave the house.
My stepmother was crying and screaming, saying ‘We have dead bodies! There are bodies in there!’ They ignored her.
The bulldozers destroyed the house over the dead bodies.
They bulldozed her children in front of her.
”   Life will never be the same A year later, Leila is still undergoing psychological treatment.
Nahedh explains, “I think she’s a bit better than she was.
When we first used to go to the cemetery, she kept trying to dig up the earth around the graves with her hands.
Even now we have to stay with her all the time; 24 hours a day.
Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) are following her condition.
When we told them we were moving to a fourth floor apartment they advised us not to.
They think she might throw herself out of the window.
They still come to us every week.
Leila needs medication to sleep and when she wakes up in the night she tries to find her children.
Whenever she remembers what happened, it’s as though it happened yesterday.
We’ve been told not to let her talk about it.
”   Nahedh’s life now revolves around caring for his stepmother.
He used to be a shepherd and is struggling to adapt to urban life.
“Sixty of my goats were killed and two donkeys.
We are a Bedouin family and we used to go to the city only once every few months.
We lost our only source of income when they killed the goats.
I feel strangled in this house but it’s not safe to go back to Jabalia.
My life has completely changed.
We’re just trying to survive now.
”