Ukrainian girl, 7, with rare cancer who flew to Israel for a cure is killed by Iranian strike
A seven-year-old Ukrainian girl who was diagnosed with a rare cancer and moved to Israel in hope of a cure has been killed by an Iranian air strike.
Nastya Buryk died alongside members with her family in Bat Yam last week when a missile fired by the Islamic regime struck their apartment block.
Nastya, her mother, grandmother and two brothers, were all killed in the blast on June 13, the first night of Iran's barrage, it was reported by Israeli news outlet Ynet.
Her father, Artem, who is fighting against Russian invaders in Kyiv, remains alive.
She had been undergoing treatment for lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare cancer that attacks blood and bone marrow.
Nastya, from Odesa, was first diagnosed in 2022 and underwent chemotherapy in Ukraine. Her condition improved but she later relapsed.
'On August 29, 2022, we heard the terrible news: 'Your daughter has cancer,'' her mother Maria Peshkureva wrote on social media.
'Since that day, I have been living in a parallel reality, where the main thing is to save. To breathe. To not give up.'
As her health worsened, her family searched for more specialist treatment and, thanks to charitable donations, they sought medical care in Israel, where Nastya had a bone marrow transplant.
The procedure was unsuccessful and her leukaemia returned.
Earlier this year, her family turned to a new treatment in Israel, while her grandmother, Olena, 60, and two brothers, Konstantin and Ilya, nine and 13, flew from Ukraine to be with her. Both of the boys attended a local school.
Nastya's father, who joined Ukraine's 95th Airborne Assault Brigade in 2022, recorded videos from the front line to appeal for donations as the cost of his daughter's care escalated.
Her family believed they would be safer in Israel than Odesa, which has suffered deadly shelling from Russian forces.
Ukraine's embassy in Israel said: 'On June 14, five Ukrainian citizens, including three minors, were killed in a massive Iranian missile attack on Israel, with a missile hitting a residential building in the city of Bat Yam.
'Ukrainian diplomats and consuls are in close contact with the police and other services to identify and organise the process of returning the bodies of the dead.'
The attack on Bat Yam also killed four other people and injured more than 100.
Since June 13, Iran has fired missiles at Israel every day in response to Israel's 'pre-emptive strike' on the regime's nuclear facilities on June 12.

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