Article Lead Image

سارة وهالة ستارز/YouTube

Man tries to distract his children during Gaza bombings in YouTube video—he died 2 days later

'Don’t worry, OK? Keep playing.'

 

Rachel Kiley

IRL

Posted on May 16, 2021   Updated on May 18, 2021, 9:52 am CDT

A father who recently recorded a YouTube video with his children trying to distract them from the ongoing threat of bombs falling in Gaza was reportedly killed just two days later.

A video uploaded to his daughters’ YouTube channel on May 12 features Ahmad Mansi heading to the market to buy toys for his three kids, who he notes are scared and sad because of the shelling happening around their home.

“Hala is sad because of the shellings, so today I’m trying to please her,” reads an English translation of Mansi’s on-screen conversation with his youngest daughter. “Today I’m going to buy you some toys, God willing.”

After Mansi returns home, the footage of his children playing with their new toys looks like a random home video, until the sound of an airplane flying overhead sends the girls running for shelter.

“I hear a sound of an airplane. Don’t worry OK?” Mansi says. “Keep playing.”

The video ends with the devoted dad comforting his girls and telling the camera they can’t continue recording anymore.

A Twitter user shared that both Mansi and his brother Yousef were killed in an Israeli airstrike just two days after the video was posted. According to a report from the nonprofit Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a pair of brothers with the same names were killed on May 14.

https://twitter.com/mahcknz/status/1393444798934265858

Mansi’s death and the story surrounding it have resonated with people online who are calling for an end to the Israeli airstrikes.

https://twitter.com/WhyAreWeHere_69/status/1393723738743525380
https://twitter.com/zanesharif/status/1393528923040927747

Current estimates suggest at least 192 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces in the past week, including at least 58 children. Sunday saw the most deadly strike yet, with 42 people killed. 


Today’s top stories

‘Fill her up’: Bartender gives woman a glass of water when the man she’s with orders tequila shot
‘I don’t think my store has even sold one’: Whataburger employees take picture with first customer who bought a burger box
‘It was a template used by anyone in the company’: Travel agent’s ‘condescending’ out-of-office email reply sparks debate
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
Share this article
*First Published: May 16, 2021, 5:52 pm CDT