GAZA, (PIC)
In the heart of the war, the ordinary moments we once took for granted become painful memories that tear families apart and shatter their hearts. In Gaza, there are thousands of stories that were once filled with love and hope, but were suddenly engulfed by the anguish of loss, displacement, and the fear of an unknown future.
Madeline, Maram, and Riham Skalily, three sisters, embody the story of how war shakes the lives of the secure and transforms them into an ongoing struggle to mend their torn selves. Just 4 days before the Israeli war of annihilation on Gaza, the three sisters were busy preparing a celebratory feast to welcome their parents back from a treatment trip to Türkiye.
Up until a week after the outbreak of the war, the sisters remained in their homes with their children and spouses, until Madeline (39 years old) was forcibly displaced to the town of Al-Zawayda in the center of the Gaza Strip due to the intense Israeli bombardment in the north of the Strip.
Madeline testifies in a testimony documented by the human rights organization B’Tselem: “I and my husband moved to a center for the displaced, and my parents moved to the house of my father’s sister in Khan Yunis. My sister Riham, her husband, and their children moved to the Shati refugee camp west of the city of Gaza, and my sister Maram, who was living in Al-Rimal neighborhood, moved with her husband Omar Al-Rifi and their 5-month-old daughter Yumna to her husband’s parents’ house in the Sabra neighborhood.”
But Maram’s escape to the Sabra neighborhood south of Gaza City did not protect her from Israeli bombs, as the occupation army bombed the house she was in on October 17, 2023, killing her young daughter Yumna and injuring Maram in the shoulder, in addition to slight burns. Her sister-in-law’s Layla, the mother of the 2-month-old baby Alina, was also killed in the bombing.
Madeline says, “Maram was in a very difficult psychological state and was unable to bear the loss of her daughter. After a few days, she was discharged from the hospital, and we convinced her and her husband to move to my parents’ home in Khan Yunis. I also moved there with my 13-year-old daughter Zaina.”
The reunion was tearful, as Maram recounted how she lost her only child, having just finished bathing her and sitting with her aunt Layla and Layla’s young daughter Alina. “After that, she prepared Yumna’s milk formula, then suddenly something heavy fell on her shoulder. She said she heard Yumna crying as the house filled with white dust. She started screaming: Yumna! Yumna! But at that point, Yumna was no longer making any sound, and Maram realized that she had been killed. It seems that Layla, who was injured, realized that she was going to die, so she asked Maram to take care of her little daughter.”
Madeleine continues to narrate the details of the ongoing tragedy, “That day, I returned to Al-Zuwaidah, but Zainab chose to stay with my parents and with Maram, who was in a difficult situation and Zainab was very attached to her. A few days later, my husband and I returned to Gaza because we could not bear life in the camp for the displaced. At that time, there was no military checkpoint on the road yet. At the same time, Maram and her husband also returned to the home of their relatives in the city of Gaza, where her mother-in-law and her husband’s brothers and sisters were also present, and many other people. Zainab remained with my parents.”
During that period, the three sisters (Madeleine, Maram, and Rihab) were in the city of Gaza, talking to each other at every opportunity, “because the situation was extremely difficult, especially in the Shati refugee camp, where Rihab lives. And every time we spoke on the phone, we thanked God that we were still alive.”
When the communications network was restored after the Israeli occupation army had deliberately cut it off from Gaza for two days on October 27th, Madeleine tried to contact Maram but she did not respond. “I tried repeatedly, and eventually Lubna, her husband’s sister, answered and told me that Maram had been martyred the day before.”
The news hit Madeleine like a thunderbolt, and she felt as if she was in a nightmare, as she did not expect to hear such news. Maram’s husband was also seriously wounded in the neck and back, and he remained in the European Hospital east of Khan Yunis for a long time.
Maram was martyred after the occupation army had killed her young daughter about ten days earlier, and she was buried without us being able to bid her farewell, says Madeleine, noting that her martyr sister was the youngest of them and had been married for about a year and a half before the war.
In the personal details of Maram, the older sister says that Maram studied business management and worked in this field, “She was a vibrant person, with a sweet temperament and a beautiful laugh. She loved her family very much and her home, which was always given the utmost care. She had many close friends who loved her dearly. She was always attentive to my mother and father, because she was the last one among us to get married and lived with them for a longer period. She was overjoyed when Yumna was born. She prepared a beautiful room for her and held a party.”
Madeline goes on to say that Maram’s martyrdom put pressure on my father and my sister Reem to move south to them, “We went out with Reem’s children carrying a white flag, and we were able to reach Khan Yunis. Two days later, my husband and Reem’s husband joined us.”
Madeline and her family are waiting for the end of the war to be freed from the recurring waves of displacement between the center and the south of the Strip, hoping to reunite with her three brothers who reside in Türkiye and a fourth sister living in Norway.
