Her parents were told to seek safety in Rafah. A piece of shrapnel killed the 7-year-old in her...

Some of Sidal Abu Jamea's last words were: “Dad, I want to sleep beside you.” Her father tried to protect her by going to Rafah, tried to keep her close. And that’s where death came for her, right beside him.

The shrapnel pierced through the thin film of 7-year-old Sidal Abu Jamea’s tent, tearing a hole through the pink blanket she was wrapped in and killing her as she slept.

“She didn’t scream,” her mother, Najwa Abu Jamea, told NBC News. “I didn’t even hear her breathe.”

It’s a death that has played out thousands of times in Gaza — a child, the most blameless of civilians, killed in a war that the Israel Defense Forces said is targeting Hamas, but has exacted a toll of more than 18,700 so far, according to Palestinian health authorities. At least 70% of those killed have been women and children.