Amid the war in Ukraine, a girl from Odesa named Nastya Buryk was fighting her own battle with leukemia. Her mother sought out medical care in Israel, where they spent more than two years. But the violence they had escaped in Ukraine caught up with them in Israel when a new war with Iran began.

Nastya Buryk was just 4 years old when her mother, Mariya, noticed that something was seriously wrong.

Nastya went to a hospital in Odesa, where the family lived, but the kind of treatment recommended for her was not available there. Artem took a leave of absence from the (Ukrainian) military to be with his family and decide what to do.

The parents learned that they could get state-of-the-art treatment for Nastya in Israel. They decided Mariya would take their daughter there while Artem stayed behind to keep fighting.

On June 15, Iranian missiles struck the city of Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv where the family was staying.

The apartment where they lived had been partially destroyed in a missile strike, killing and injuring many civilians. Among the dead were Nastya, Mariya, Nastya’s grandmother, and the two young cousins.

The news reached Nastya’s father the next day, when the girl’s aunt called him. “She told me to sit down,” Artem said. “I sat down and she told me that a missile hit the building in Israel and killed everyone.”

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
    112·
    8 hours ago

    A tragic story that should be added to piles of child tragedy in Palestine as well as the other affected countries from these conflicts. Speaking of Palestine, I can’t see it mentioned at all on the front page of rferl.org.