Ramallah -
When the body of the martyred son of the village, Muhammad Matar, was handed over last December, the mother of the martyr Baraa Salih, "Fattom Salih", was the first to arrive at his home.
She was keen to be the closest to the body during his farewell, as he was returning to his family from the occupation refrigerators, where her son has been detained for 5 years.
"When I held his hand, it was like a piece of ice in my hand since that day, and I feel the pain of the cold in my hand. If this is the case, and he is the one who has been in detention for a year and a half (the year), how is the condition of the detainee in the refrigerators for 5 years?!"
She told Al Jazeera Net.
Fatoum Saleh, the mother of the martyr Baraa, refers to a photo of him with the martyr Adel Ankush (Al Jazeera)
Not only was Baraa's mother who attended the funeral, but also the mother of the martyr "Osama Atta" and "Adel Ankush", Baraa's friend and two companions in carrying out the shooting attack near Bab al-Amud in occupied Jerusalem in June 2017.
The Israeli occupation forces have held the bodies of the three friends since then and refused to hand them over, despite all the demands made by the families: "There is no clear response about the fate of our sons, and there is no certain news about their handover," Fattoum Saleh tells Al Jazeera Net.
Held in the refrigerators of the occupation
Since then, the three mothers have shared the pain of holding the bodies of their sons in the occupation refrigerators, and they have the same hope that they will be able to bury their sons and close the three graves that were opened in the village cemetery for the "Three Heroes", as was written on the posters that were hung everywhere in the house of the martyr Baraa in Deir Abu Mishaal, northwest of Ramallah, where we met them on Mother's Day.
Saleh is the youngest son of Saleh, whose tears have not dried up since she started talking about him: "Whenever I open the refrigerator, I feel the tightness of the world in my chest, if for the last day of my life I will continue to demand his burial."
Burying Baraa and closing his grave is the only wish of the mother, who had 3 grandchildren, all of whom bore the name of the martyr.
The mother of the martyr Adel Ankush (center) from an event calling for his body to be handed over in Ramallah (Archive - Al Jazeera)
He said goodbye to her at Al-Aqsa before his martyrdom
This wish is shared by Zainab Ankush, Adel and Osama's mother. Zainab tells Al Jazeera Net: "Their souls are with God, but it is our right to know their fate. I, like any mother, want my son to have a grave to visit. Is there anyone in the world who does not know where the body of his son is."
Zainab was praying in Al-Aqsa when the news of the operation was announced, and during her return, she heard that 3 young men had carried out the operation, but she did not know that Adel was one of them until after she reached the village. .
Zainab Ankush: There is no information yet about the whereabouts of the three martyrs (Al-Jazeera)
According to Zainab Ankush, they have no information yet about the whereabouts of the three martyrs. Sometimes the lawyer informs them that they have been buried in the cemeteries of the occupation army until they are handed over when an exchange deal is completed, and at another time they are informed that they are still in the refrigerators.
"There is no official or public interest in this issue, the authority can pressure to hand them over, but no one cares about this issue."
The three mothers participate in all the events organized to demand the bodies of their sons, but "to no avail", says Zainab Ankush, and "as if this pain is only for the families of the martyrs whose bodies are being held."
Since its return to the policy of holding the bodies of martyrs after the Al-Aqsa donation in 2015, Israel has detained the bodies of 94 martyrs, including 9 children, two women and 7 prisoners.
A number of them were buried in the cemeteries of numbers and the rest are still in the refrigerators, according to the national campaign to retrieve the bodies of the detained martyrs and to reveal the fate of the missing.
Amna Atta, the mother of the martyr Osama Atta, and the last picture of them in Al-Aqsa hours before his martyrdom (Al-Jazeera)
frequent loss
Although their pain is the same, Osama's mother, "Amna Atta", had a different experience, and she was lost after the death of his 27-year-old brother, Muhammad, after he was terminally ill.
She tells Al Jazeera Net: "When I said goodbye to him and hugged him, my heart grieved for him and I remembered his brother Osama, all I wish was to be able to say goodbye to him for the last time."
Osama's mother was also in Al-Aqsa and met him there before he carried out the operation: "It was as if he was saying goodbye to me. We took pictures together and he stayed with me until afternoon. When I asked him to come home with us, he said to me: If I have a share, I will return tomorrow."
Perhaps what hurts her most is that she was unable to fulfill the wish of her son “Muhammad” before his death by bidding farewell to his brother after receiving his body, and in his last days he recommended that he be buried next to him if he died before his body was retrieved.
After these years, the mother lost any hope of any party helping them to retrieve her son's body. "Whenever the occupation stormed our house, I thought they came to deliver his body, but now my only hope is from God."
From an event to demand the handover of the bodies of the martyrs in Ramallah (Archive-Al Jazeera)
On Mother's Day
During the long conversation with the three mothers about their constant pain at the martyrdom of their sons and the confiscation of their bodies, they spoke with great love and longing about their memories of Mother's Day with them.
The three were keen to prepare gifts and surprises for them, only to return minutes later to agree that all occasions and holidays are meaningless without fulfilling a single wish for them, which is to "close the graves of their children and bury them."