Earlier this month, the Israeli occupying forces withdrew from my hometown of Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, presumably to organize for an assault on close by Rafah. Now, these civilians who received the lottery of life and demise are on a path of damaged desires again to Khan Younis. It’s a pilgrimage – hajj in Arabic – however certainly one of grief not of religion.
Hazard nonetheless lurks in each nook, however my cousin Ikram and her husband, Awad, felt compelled to affix the hajj and enterprise to the al-Qarara space within the north of Khan Younis to verify on Awad’s brother Mohammad and his household.
What they found was past comprehension. Mohammed, his spouse, Manar, and their seven kids – Khaled, Qusai, Hadya, Mentioned, Ahmad, Ibrahim and Abed, all beneath the age of 15 – had been brutally killed by an Israeli air strike on their residence. Their home lay in ruins and their our bodies lay decomposing, stray canines and cats making an attempt to gnaw at them. Ikram and Awad dug shallow graves and buried them.
This was the second time Ikram and Awad needed to bury nephews and nieces. In October, they needed to deal with the our bodies of Tasneem, Yasmeen, Mahmoud and Ilyas, the youngsters of Awad’s different brother, Ibrahim, who have been killed together with their mom, Nancy, by an Israeli bombardment.
This time, the ache proved too insufferable. Upon her return residence, Ikram, overcome by grief, suffered a sudden lack of imaginative and prescient. The reason for this tragic affliction stays unknown, leaving us all bewildered and devastated.
In the meantime, within the west of Khan Younis, which now resembles a ghost city, a few of my husband’s household launched into an analogous journey of anguish. Their vacation spot: the ruins of their houses, not removed from what stays of al-Amal Hospital.
The whole block, together with the three multi-storey buildings the place my brothers-in-law and greater than 70 different individuals used to dwell, was destroyed. The younger males of the household took footage, movies and salvaged what little remained of their former lives. Then they made the journey again to al-Mawasi, as soon as a vibrant hub of life on the seashore of Khan Younis, now remodeled right into a tent camp, a wasteland of desperation, the place they’ve been displaced for the previous 4 months.
Upon returning to their tents, they shared the photographs and clips of the ruins of their houses with their dad and mom and siblings. For my sister-in-law Nima, the information and pictures of her residence proved an excessive amount of to bear. She stored weeping whereas trying on the photos. The following morning, Nima was discovered unresponsive.
Her household rushed her to the closest hospital, al-Amal, which paradoxically interprets to “hope”, solely to search out no hospital and no hope. One of many heroic docs who remained there declared her useless. She merely couldn’t stand up to the anguish. Overwhelmed by grief and despair, Nima had suffered a stroke.
![A photo of Nima's destroyed home she saw before she suffered a stroke in Khan Younis [Courtesy of Ghada Ageel]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image_123650291-1713886378.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
Nima’s husband, Suleiman, and his kids struggled to finish the funeral preparations, to scrub the physique within the appropriate manner, to search out materials for a coffin and to achieve out to Rabab, Nima’s eldest daughter, who had sought refuge in Rafah.
As they cried and mourned, Israeli bombs continued to fall on residential areas in Rafah, Nuseirat refugee camp, Deir al-Balah, Maghazi refugee camp and Beit Hanoon, leading to tons of of casualties. In Rafah’s Yibna refugee camp, a bomb killed members of the Abu Al Hanoud household – Iman; her mom, Ibtisam; her husband, Mohammed; and their 4 younger kids: Taleen, Alma, Lana and Karam.
Throughout this heavy bombardment, Suleiman made the choice to not inform Rabab, fearing for her and her kids’s security. They buried Nima with out her. The selection was devastating, however the dangers of travelling to Rafah and again have been too excessive. The drone strikes, shelling or ship bombardments have been relentless.
On the day they buried Nima, the Israeli military bombarded the market at Maghazi camp, killing 11 individuals, a lot of them girls and youngsters.
This was not the primary time that immense ache had resulted in such an premature demise within the household. In 1967, Suleiman’s father, Abdullah, suffered a stroke when the tough actuality of the Israeli army occupation dawned.
Having misplaced his residence within the Nakba of 1948, the fear that the Israeli military unleashed onto the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza in 1967 got here as one other shock. However in the end, what proved an excessive amount of to bear was Israeli troopers kidnapping his son, Suleiman, who was a 16-year-old baby at the moment.
Realizing nothing about Suleiman’s destiny and unable to just accept the considered shedding him, Abdullah succumbed to grief, and a stroke ravaged his physique, leaving him paralysed. He endured the distress of life in Khan Younis camp for seven years earlier than passing away the week after Suleiman’s return to Gaza.
Grateful that his spouse, Nima, didn’t undergo the identical extended ache as his father, Suleiman thanked Allah and requested his kids to recite Surah al-Fatiha for her.
Nima is simply one of many greater than 10,000 Palestinian girls who’ve died to date on this battle. She was a superb host and a implausible prepare dinner who dreamed in the future of constructing the pilgrimage to Mecca, meticulously saving each spare shekel for the journey.
Nima’s demise extinguished not solely her desires but additionally the heat and generosity that outlined her essence, the Palestinian essence. She leaves behind a void stuffed solely with heartache and loss.
Like my kids, I began to surprise who shall be there and what shall be there once we go to Gaza subsequent?
The missiles from an Israeli-made Hermes drone can pierce Gaza’s unshielded airspace and destroy lives in seconds. The so-called “hearth and overlook” missiles can hit targets at a distance of greater than 2.5km (1.5 miles) within the sky, so when they’re fired, nobody on the bottom is aware of they’re coming. Civilians going about their enterprise are killed immediately as a result of there isn’t a one and nothing to guard them.
Not one Jordanian, British, French or American warplane was deployed in defence of the 50 girls killed day by day for the previous 200 days by Israel. However all of them scrambled to guard Israel from Iranian drones that took eight hours to achieve its territory, many didn’t even make it that far. The one slower methodology of supply of the Iranian strikes would have been to move the weapons by camels by way of the desert.
However now the world has shifted its focus to Iran. Israel has been made into the sufferer once more. Nobody speaks about the suitable to self-defence of Palestinian civilians dwelling by way of genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity.
“Fireplace and overlook” in Gaza seems to be a world coverage.
However my resolute cry is that the world should always remember. Good individuals the world over are working to make sure that these chargeable for these crimes and people who provided them the weapons will face trial and be haunted by the spectre of justice for the remainder of their days.
