GAZA, (PIC)
The stories of war are horrific and brutal, burning the hearts of Palestinians day after day. The Israeli war machine continues to rain death in the Gaza Strip, where the situation doesn’t just end with killing and injury; here, the tragedies begin.
Our story today is about a Palestinian girl forced by the pain and Israeli crimes to become a mother to five of her siblings after the occupation army killed her parents and brother in a tragic scene filled with despair, sadness, and pain.
Dalia Al-Majdalawi, 24 years old, says that she, her father, and her siblings were in the Bedouin village in northern Gaza. Due to the criminal war, they were displaced several times from the village to Gaza City and back.
She continued that they were displaced in a school near the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya when her father, mother, and one of her brothers decided to go home to check on it last February. At that moment, Israeli warplanes bombed the house, resulting in the death of her mother, father, and brother.
She mentioned that they hid her brother’s death from her, and when she went to bid farewell to her parents at Kamal Adwan Hospital, she was shocked to learn that her brother had died from his injuries. She confirms that she has now become the mother to her five remaining siblings.
Dalia carries in her arms a small child no more than a year old, confirming that he is her younger brother, born to her mother during the war just a few months before her martyrdom.
Dalia and her siblings have gone through 12 displacement journeys, ending up in a school in the middle of Gaza under dire and harsh conditions, bordering on death, pain, and misfortune.
Before their last displacement to central Gaza in July, Dalia was displaced in the western part of Gaza City, where she would go daily to gather mallow plants to feed her siblings amid the rampant hunger in the area.
Dalia speaks of an overwhelming pain in her heart as she is now responsible for five siblings, the youngest of whom is just a year old. “Their food, drink, clothing, and education,” she says, “God have mercy on you, Mom and Dad, for leaving me with this burden and pain.”
She cries and asserts that she will be their support and will continue her mother’s journey as she transforms from a sister into both a mother and father.
She continues, “I’m a university student, and now I’m responsible for five siblings, the oldest is 17 years old, and the youngest is an 11-month-old baby. It’s very difficult; how can I raise a small child? I didn’t know how to deal with him; he needs care. I used to take him to the hospital; it was tough.”
She thanks God and says, “We have suffered a lot; in a year and a month, we were displaced 12 times, from Gaza to the north and back, and finally to the center. We passed through the Netzarim checkpoint. It was very difficult; we expected the Israeli army to arrest us or kill us, as they conducted field interrogations and searches.”
“During the displacement, my siblings cried, clinging to me, fear etched on their faces. It was a day that is difficult to describe,” Dalia continues.
She adds, “My sister always asks me about Mom and Dad; she had a friendly relationship with our father, and she cries for them all the time. I tell her they are in heaven.” I hug her and say, “I’m like your mother,” while my brother Mohannad has a disability in his eye and works for a very small amount of money.
Dalia struggles in the shelter to support her five siblings amid the ongoing madness of war and the harsh conditions of displacement.
