In their modest house east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza the parents of slain child Azzam Owaida were sitting preoccupied with thoughts of the past when their son was alive before he came home on Friday April 27 being carried over the shoulders of men.
15-year-old Owaida suffered a serious bullet injury in his head during his participation in the “Friday of the Revolutionary Youth” before he was proclaimed dead in hospital later on Saturday. He was one of hundreds of protesters rallying about 300 meters away from the Israeli border fence.
In the presence of mourners the mother of Azzam was holding a simple kite her son was preparing to fly it one day recalling when he asked her to place it somewhere in the house as a reminder of him if he became a martyr.
At the time she acted like all mothers who concern about their children and told Azzam not to talk like this anymore and asked God to protect him.
The mother did not realize that her son’s passing talk about martyrdom would come true and that Israeli occupation would deprive him of his little dream of flying the kite he made.
His father Hilal Owaida told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the soul of his son Azzam was given for the sake of the Aqsa Mosque and Palestine adding that every Palestinian has the duty to defend his land and holy sites.
“He often wished martyrdom and was telling his friends that he liked to be a martyr. He went out after lunch [on Friday] to the eastern border of Khan Younis as other peaceful and unarmed protesters but he stayed long outside and we became worried until we received a phone call at sunset from someone telling us that he was injured” the father said.
Later after his parents looked for their son in some hospitals one of their relatives told them there was a picture published on the Internet of an unidentified wounded boy in the intensive care unit at the European Gaza Hospital and that he could be their son.
At the door of the intensive care room the father asked to see the clothes of the wounded kid and after seeing them he collapsed on the ground and cried bitterly for what had happened to his son.
As the family was bidding a final farewell to Azzam his sister Mayada asked God amid tears to bestow his mercy and peace upon her brother.
“May Allah have mercy on you my brother and accept you as a martyr so we can be with you in heaven. We have been afflicted with an enemy who has no mercy and does not recognize a little boy or child” she said.
