GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Yasmin Koljah burst into tears as she talked about the death of her son Zaki, 10. “He said he was going on a trip to a resort with his friends from Fathul Mubin mosque near our house. He said the trip was supervised by reliable young people and that he had arranged everything with his father,” Koljah told Al-Monitor.

She said, “I learned on Aug. 20 that a child from al-Zaytoun neighborhood, where we live, fell off a water ride and died in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. But it did not occur to me that it was my own son because he had told me he was going to Al-Nour resort in the central Gaza Strip, until someone called my husband and told him that Zaki, our eldest of four sons, was the one who died in the Asda City’s amusement park.”

Koljah could not continue to speak. Her husband Raed Koljah said, “As soon as I heard the news, I went to Asda City. The park’s administration had taken him to the European [Gaza] Hospital where he died. I learned from my son's friends that he was at the top of a ladder that leads to a water ride at 3:45 p.m. As he tried to slide, he fell to the ground and his head cracked open. A part of his brain fell to the ground."

Koljah said he was going to raise the issue with Asda City because their water rides lack safety measures and the ground has no rubber mats for protection, not even for the water rides. The father blamed the park’s administration for the death of his son.