Thinking on the value of human life as I was after the rabbi's sermon this afternoon I read this. From The Sunday Times.
DRIFTING in and out of consciousness in her Gaza hospital bed last week, Mona al-Ashkar seemed only dimly aware that her mother was willing her to lose her fight for life.
“Please die, give up, don’t live,” muttered Raeda al-Ashkar at the bedside.
Then she prayed aloud for her daughter’s death. “Dear God, give her martyrdom,” she cried. When she thought Mona could hear her, she whispered in the teenager’s ear and urged her to say the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith.
Mona’s left leg was sliced clean off and her left arm paralysed . . .
In her mother’s eyes, Mona, 17, would be better off dead than enduring a life of disability in a society that offers little hope for such a girl.
Her father is unemployed, the family has no money for specialist medical care and there is little prospect of her falling in love or finding a young husband. If she marries, the groom will almost certainly be someone much older who may take her on as a second wife in an act of charity.
Raeda suffers from a debilitating heart problem and relied on Mona to look after her two brothers and three sisters. (This woman with heart condition and an unemployed husband have managed to produce enough children between them. It must beat working for a living) “Now I’m worried I can’t carry her, serve her or take care of her in my condition,” she said.
As for Mona, she had recovered enough to speak briefly at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Friday evening, but was struggling to comprehend what had happened to her.
“I have no future now,” she said. “I used to dream of finishing my education, becoming a maths teacher, marrying and bearing children. Who would consider a girl in my situation? How can I marry without a leg?”  The two women who lost legs in the London bombs have managed.
How much does Hamas pay the relatives of Martyrs? This little girl can no longer skivvy for her mother and is so worth more dead than alive. They love death like we love life indeed.