Ten days before her wedding, Gaza bride-to-be shot in the head by an Israeli sniper

Ten days before her wedding, Hala Salem Darwish was preparing for a celebration. Instead, she now lies in intensive care after a bullet from an Israeli sniper pierced her family home and struck her in the head, turning her wedding countdown into a fight for survival.

The 19-year-old was helping her family prepare food shortly before sunset when the bullet entered through a window, hitting the back left side of her head and causing her to collapse in front of her relatives.

A wedding interrupted

Her fiancé, Mohammed Shreihi, said the shooting came just days before the ceremony they had long awaited.

“There were only 10 days left until our wedding,” he told Anadolu. “In a single moment, everything changed.”

He said the bullet remains lodged in her head and has caused severe damage to brain tissue, leaving her condition critical and unstable.

Doctors have so far been unable to operate, waiting for her condition to stabilize.

“She was like any bride, full of joy and anticipation,” he said. “Now we are only hoping she survives.”

A father’s memory

Her father, Salim, said the moment of the shooting continues to haunt him.

“We were preparing food when suddenly an Israeli bullet came through the window and hit her,” he said. “She fell in front of us. I cannot forget that scene.”

He added that her wedding had been scheduled for early May, a day the family had been preparing for despite the hardships of war.

Health system on the brink

Hala’s case reflects the broader reality in Gaza, where the health system has been pushed to the brink.

Doctors say the treatment she needs is not available inside the enclave and requires urgent transfer abroad.

Palestinian estimates indicate that around 22,000 wounded and sick people in Gaza need to leave the territory for treatment amid severe shortages of medicines and medical equipment.

Her fiancé has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and humanitarian organizations to intervene, hoping she can be evacuated in time.

For now, the wedding dress remains unworn, and the future she had planned has been replaced by uncertainty.

Israel has continued to commit daily violations of a ceasefire deal that was signed last October, killing 830 Palestinians and injuring 2,345, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ceasefire was meant to end a two-year Israeli onslaught on Gaza which left more than 72,000 dead and 172,000 wounded and destroyed 90% of civilian infrastructure.

The UN estimates reconstruction costs at around $70 billion.

*Writing by Tarek Chouiref