On the day she received her school certificate 16-year-old Nouf Infiaat decided to return to her parents with a greater certificate: martyrdom. Her story was written with her blood in the face of the oppressing occupier to be registered among the ranks of heroes.
Her mother was waiting for her to return home with her school certificate in a modest house in the town of Yabad to the south of Jenin in the northern West Bank but she returned with a certificate of another kind that revived her mother’s memory of what her daughter was aiming at illustrating how many young Palestinians think of their homeland and that they are ready to sacrifice everything for it.
It was Thursday June 1 2017 the day in which students were supposed to go to schools to receive their school certificates. Nouf woke up as usual and hugged her mother a last goodbye to return later with the highest certificate: martyrdom.
Seeking martyrdom
Um Zaid Nouf’s mother told the PIC reporter “She told me she was going to pick up her school certificate and I was waiting for her return. But she was planning to get another type of certificate: martyrdom.”
What she has done was a very symbolic indication of what young Palestinians are thinking about. The sixteen-year-old and the 8th grader realized what many did not realize about their duty and their role in confronting the escalating attacks of occupation against the Palestinians.
After leaving the house Nouf went to the main road and crossed the inter-section where her school is located reaching a place that represents a thorn in the throat of the people of Yabad: the checkpoint and the settlement of Mevo Dotan built on the town’s land.
According to a video published by the Israeli occupation Nouf brandished a knife and stabbed an Israeli soldier as some soldiers got out of their bus at the entrance of the settlement. She then tried to withdraw from the scene but was shot. She was seriously wounded. She was transferred to a hospital in Jaffa where her death was announced the following day. Her body was handed over to her family two days later.
Deliberate delay of medical aid
Nouf’s father stressed that he respected the choice of his daughter considering her a martyr for Palestine but at the same time he accuses the Israeli occupation of deliberately delaying providing medical aid to her after she was injured which led to her death in a violation of the standards that should be followed with wounded people.
Dr. Naji Nazzal who participated in the check up of Nouf’s corpse said several bullets penetrated the body of the girl and settled in the abdomen while one bullet ended up in the pelvis which led to a severe bleeding that caused her death.
Nazzal pointed out that the wounds in her body indicate that she underwent surgery upon her arrival at the hospital but the severe bleeding and the loss of a big amount of blood as a result of the deliberate delay of medical aid led to the loss of her life.
Nouf is the youngest martyr in the town of Yabad and the first to venture into the settlement of Mevo Dotan where no one before dared to do so.
Religious commitment and intelligence
According to Nouf’s brothers’ account to the PIC reporter she insisted the night before her martyrdom on performing Taraweeh prayers in the nearby mosque. She was known as a religious person who would always recite the Quran. A short while ago she visited Al-Aqsa Mosque a dream she fondly spoke of. Her school notes were full of the expressions of martyrdom Al-Aqsa and Palestine.
Nouf was also known for her intelligence and wittiness which was beyond her age which was clear from the way she carried out the stabbing attack as revealed by a video taken from the surveillance cameras in the settlement.
