The Israeli airstrikes killed 46 Palestinian civilians including 15 children and 4 women and injured 360 others including 58 women during the latest Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Starting on the 5th of August 2022 the three-day Israeli aggression did not only rise the death toll among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip but it robbed dozens of families of lifetime plans and dreams.
The Palestinian families of the martyrs Naama Abu Qaida Ismail Dweik and Khalil Hamada have started to narrate the bloody tales of lost dreams since the 6th of August on which the Israeli aerial strikes targeted them.
In the southern Gaza Strip Ismail Dweik who had been engaged to Abeer Harb since June 2022 was martyred after Israel bombarded his home in Rafah.
Abeer and her father were invited to have dinner on Saturday evening in Ismail’s home which was targeted at that time yet their apology prior to dinner time spared their lives. Nonetheless no one of Dweik or Harb’s families was spared from the anguish of loss.
“Four days after finding the watch that she gifted to Ismail under the rubble of the utterly wrecked house” Abeer told the Palestinian journalist Osama al-Kahlout that for two months she and Ismail have been preparing their new home to get married but Israel cold-bloodedly killed Ismail.
”Nothing remained. Everything is gone” Abeer sighed.
To the north of the Gaza Strip the Israeli warplanes killed the 62-year-old woman Naama Abu Qaida after targeting her son’s wedding car in Beit Hanoun camp. The family was on its way to transport the bride to her husband’s house yet a funeral took place instead.
Moreover in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip Israel killed 19-year-old Khalil Hamada who is the only son of his parents. In a split second the Israeli missiles targeted Khalil near his home turning the long-awaited son into a mere corpse.
Khalil’s mother Najwa Hamada had been conducting fetal cell transplant trials five of which had failed before it was finally conceived. Yet the fulfilled dream of motherhood did not last for long. 15 years of trying with the transplant in addition to 19 years of day-to-day care for Khalil collapsed before Najwa’s eyes.
The PIC talked to Najwa’s cousin Safa’ Migdad who witnessed Najwa’s reaction to the loss of her only son. Safa’ asserted that Najwa fainted more than once while recounting the stories of Khalil’s aspirations and wishes.
Khalil was planning to get married to make our house “a home full of kids” Safa’ quoted Najwa as saying. Safa’ added that Najwa wept saying “I used to be crying over the loss of Palestinian women while watching them bidding their martyred sons farewell during previous Israeli aggressions on Gaza. Now I have become among these bereaved women.”
Earlier in 2021 Israel killed 260 Palestinian civilians in May during the 11-day Israeli assault on Gaza leaving burnt hearts and incomplete stories behind and therefore turning celebrations into lifelong sorrows.
– Amna Shabana is a PIC writer.
