The world that Jamila, Mustafa, Mohamed and Omar knew came crashing down on April 10, when her mother, Ghada Sabatiin, went on foot to visit her uncle in a village near Bethlehem in the West Bank, and an Israeli soldier walked her away. killed "by mistake".

The woman, a 45-year-old widow,

unarmed, partially blind

and with little knowledge of Hebrew, bled to death in the street, leaving her six children orphaned.

The town of Husan, in the

West Bank

, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, is usually a quiet place and Ghada thought he was far from the increase in tension that exists these days between Israelis and Palestinians, fueled by several attacks in Tel Aviv, raids military in the West Bank and clashes in Jerusalem.

Husan's shops have their signs in Arabic and Hebrew and regularly serve Israeli settlers who live in nearby settlements and stop to do their shopping, with hardly any tension.

At the entrance to the town, Israeli soldiers stand guard at a small concrete median that serves as a checkpoint.

On April 10, Ghada went out to visit her uncle, wearing a hijab and a long robe.

On her way back, she passed through this checkpoint.

As she approached, a soldier shouted and fired warning shots.

Ghada had "vision problems" and

did not speak Hebrew

because she spent many years abroad, her family explains.

In footage captured by a Palestinian TV reporter who happened to be filming nearby, the woman appeared to panic.

But she kept walking and

the soldier shot her in the legs, making her fall to the ground

.

The ambulance took several minutes to arrive.

When he arrived at the hospital in the Palestinian city of Beit Yala, she had lost too much blood to survive.

My mother "was everything"

Ghada's mother, with her grandchildren after the tragic death of the woman. HAZEM BADERAFP

Ghada

was not wearing a bomb vest and was not armed

.

In her family, shock is mixed with anger since her death.

"My sister went there and asked a soldier in Hebrew: 'Did you do something wrong?'" Ghada's mother, Huria Sabatiin, 69, told AFP. "He replied: 'No.'

+Then

why did you shoot?+, she asked.

The soldier said, "I'm sorry," she continues.

Sitting around her are her grandchildren, four of the Ghada orphans:

Omar, Jamila, Mohamed and Mustafa

, staring at the ground.

"They have become orphans. And I, I am older, I am afraid for them when they go out, I am afraid for them because of the army," says Huria.

"I would like to feed them and teach them about life. But I am afraid for their future," he adds.

At 15 years old, Mustafa cannot assimilate the tragedy.

"When I lost my mother,

it was as if life had no meaning anymore

. She was the one who got us up in the morning, the one who greeted us when we returned from school, the one who took care of us," she explains.

"She was everything, she can't be replaced."

He remembers his mother's delicious maqluba, a traditional Palestinian dish made with rice and meat, and how it helped him with his math homework.

"He made me understand immediately,"

she says.

Born into a family of scientists, Ghada Sabatiin graduated in mathematics from Bethlehem University and spent 15 years in Jordan, where she was a teacher.

When her husband passed away four years ago, Ella Ghada returned to Husan with her children.

She prepared meals for them, helped them with their homework, read the Koran to them, visited distant relatives, and occasionally gave private lessons.

"She was an

independent, peaceful and educated woman

who was not interested in politics at all," says Rafat, her brother, who explains that he received an apology from the Israeli army for his "mistake."

AFP questioned the Israeli armed forces about Ghada's death.

Her version is that the woman ran "

suspiciously"

towards the checkpoint and that the soldiers shot her legs.

"The subject received a first medical treatment from IDF soldiers at the scene," the army said.

"The circumstances of the case are being reviewed."

In a rare gesture, the US chief for Palestinian affairs, George Noll, called the family to express his condolences.

The Husan area has seen an uptick in overnight protests since Ghada's death.

A young man, Qusay Hamamra, was killed by Israeli forces after throwing a Molotov cocktail at them.

But Huria wants to teach a different path for his grandchildren.

"If we want to fight against Israel, we have to do it with education, culture (...

) We cannot remain in hatred,"

she says.

"For the love of Ghada, I have to teach this to her children."

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