With her spontaneous words loaded with love and apprehension a mother shouted out “Curly hair white and beautiful” describing her child while trying to find him among the martyrs and wounded in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Her words shook the entire world who felt sympathy for the loss of the 7-year-old Youssef whose death news came as a heavy burden on his parents’ shoulders.
The scene that shows the father who is a doctor searching for and finally finding his (dead) child was documented in a video clip reflecting one of thousands of cases that demonstrate the human aspect that accompanies the Israeli occupation’s aggression and the burden of the loss of the loved ones in Gaza.
It took the child’s father Doctor Muhammad Hamid Abu Musa about 20 minutes to find Youssef after a long exhausting search journey in the hospital’s recovery and emergency rooms and all the way to the morgue where the shock took place and ended that journey. The doctor found the body of his beloved child then all he did was hugging him.
The last hug
Recounting the details of the toughest day he had ever encountered in his life the child’s father said: “On the day of the bombing October 15 and before going to work Youssef hugged me and called on his mother and sisters for a family hug. We all stood and hugged each other. Two hours later after I had arrived at my workplace I heard the bombardment as my house was not that far from the hospital”.
“On the day of the bombardment that targeted my house I had a 24-hour emergency work shift. Youssef was always asking about my work schedules calculating for me; when I would go out and what time I would come back home. Every time I got to work he would hug and kiss me. He was the first to run towards me hug and kiss me when I am back home” the father added.
He went on saying “We know that they hit anyone and anywhere. I was worried because the sound came from the place where I reside. I started questioning about the location of the bombing but no one answered me. I called my wife but she did not answer for the first time. The second time the phone was answered but I only could hear the screaming. I lost my nerves and went to the emergency room where I heard the voice of my daughter her mother and my other son Hamid all wailing”.
Doctor Abu Musa and his Egyptian wife have three children. The eldest is a girl called Juri the second is a boy called Hamid and the youngest is the 7-year-old boy Youssef. All of them hold the Egyptian citizenship.
Camera recording
The father recounted what happened at the hospital that day saying that “There was a photographer who was shooting the scenes of the wounded. He opened his camera and started showing pictures of the injuries. I recognized Youssef among the pictures by his clothes. I said: Yes that is him where is he? The man shook his head and did not reply. Standing behind him was a man who uttered the heavy words: I carried him to the morgue.”
The father doctor experienced a state of shock and disequilibrium when he was told that his “beautiful white curly-haired” child was in the mortuary. He barely could hold his nerves and while he was going to the morgue he was praying to Allah once again that all of this would be a nightmare and that his child would still be alive.
The doctor went to the morgue and saw his colleagues there who were looking at him sadly. He recalled: “I stood up but could not walk without their help. I entered the room and saw him along with his two-year-older cousin in the same morgue. My brother had difficulty recognizing his wife whose body was also there because it was torn into pieces. The other children of my brother were injured. One of them had a compound fracture in the thigh and forearm shrapnel in the abdomen and burns. My daughter had a fracture in the pelvis and a wound that reached the bone in the back. Yet all I said was “Thanks to Allah”.
Maternal shock
The mother was in a state of total shock right from the beginning of the search until she saw her child in the morgue. The father could not tell her that her child was dead but she was crying and wailing in the hospital while searching for him as if she knew that it was her last moments with him and as she was recorded describing him to doctors by her famous words: “He is curly haired white and beautiful. Where is my love?”
The father of martyr Youssef commented: “I could not tell his mother and siblings that he was dead. When my other son knew about his brother’s martyrdom he had a nervous breakdown and his mother was shocked running here and there. When she knew it she asked to see him for the last time before the burial.”
“I tried a lot to convince her not to see him in this state but she refused and insisted. I did not know what to do while seeing her kissing him and touching him for the last time. The situation was so difficult for her and for all of us. May Allah grant his mother patience. Youssef was everyone’s lover the entire family loved him his fellows in the sport club my colleagues his grandfather everyone loved him may Allah have mercy on him my love” the father said.
He concluded his speech by saying: “I lost everything my relatives my home and my life but the greatest loss is my son my beloved Youssef.”
