This article was originally published by Ma'an News Agency and is republished with permission.

Flowers are seen on a Palestinian student's desk who was killed in Israel's 22-day assault, as his classmates go back to school for the first time in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. (Hatem Omar, Maan Images)

When the schools opened in the Gaza Strip Saturday, Mr Al-Batran was not in his classroom. He has not been home in days, and relatives say he has not seen his one-year-old son since the massacre.

Forty-year-old Issa Al-Batran may never go back home. His surviving mother and son have begged him to come back with them, but he prefers to wander the streets with his memories of Gaza before the onslaught.

He was a teacher at the UN school in the Al-Bureij refugee camp; he was a father of six, a husband and a homeowner.

His wife Manal, three daughters and two sons were killed in the room next to Issa.

The family was living in the salon, but he had excused himself to pray in the silence of the adjacent room for a few moments. His infant son, Abd Al-Hadi, crawled after him, which is the only reason he is still alive.

He remembered hearing seven-year-old Bilal and four-year-old Iz-Addin whispering something about Israeli warplanes in the sky. There were always warplanes in the sky, so he did not take notice.

As Issa prayed, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at his neighbor's home. There was neither enough time to finish his prayer or evacuate his family. He grabbed Abd Al-Hadi and yelled for the family to follow him out of the home.

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The jets fired a second missile, hitting the balcony where his two sons were playing. The two boys were thrown to a tree in the street where they were found by passersby. The home caught fire and rapidly collapsed, killing his wife and three other children.

After taking Abd Al-Hadi outside and handing him to a neighbor, he went back in the burning house to find his other children.

He found the salon burning and bloody. He found the torn-off limbs of his wife and three daughters, 15-year-old Islam and 10-year-old twins Eman and Ihsan.

Ihsan was still alive.

He carried her carefully out of the home and laid her in the ambulance waiting outside. She died in the ambulance.

Issa found it difficult to distinguish between the bodies of his wife and the other two girls. "The missile mixed everything together," he recalls.