Hamza Abu Halima, the Palestinian young man who sat tall in front of an Israeli soldier despite his wounds (social networking sites)
Gaza -
“Despite the injury and the handcuffing of his hands... the lion remains a lion,” is one of many comments in which people brag about a wounded Palestinian young man, handcuffed and with his body bare, staring with sharp gazes in front of a heavily armed Israeli soldier in Gaza City.
Over the past few days, a photo has spread like wildfire, of a young Palestinian man arrested by the occupation forces in Gaza City. He appears naked, with injuries to his leg, and an Israeli soldier sat him on a chair, handcuffed behind him.
Circles close to the young man say, “Perhaps this soldier wanted to break him by publishing the picture, but his looks summed up all the meanings of heroism (..) Hamza was a hero in the face of an aggressive and cowardly soldier.”
The owner of this photo is “the heroic son of the Shujaiya neighborhood,” Hamza Khamis Abu Halima, as many comments described him, which filled social media platforms.
Picture story
Last December, the occupation forces stormed the house of one of Hamza’s uncles in the “Yarmouk” area of Gaza City, to which he had fled with his family from the Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, east of the city, following the intensification of battles and violent raids that targeted entire residential squares in this neighborhood, which suffered a share. There has been an abundance of killing and destruction since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7 of last year.
Hamza's cousin told Al Jazeera Net, preferring not to reveal his identity, that the occupation soldiers arrested Hamza after he was injured by shrapnel in his right leg during the storming of the house. They stripped him of his clothes and took him from the "Yarmouk" area, east of the city, to the "Palestine Stadium" in the west.
The Israeli occupation army arrests civilians in Gaza (social networking sites)
The occupation forces, which penetrated deep into the city by land, turned the “Palestine Stadium” in the Al-Rimal neighborhood into a detention and investigation center, and their soldiers published many photos and video clips on social media platforms of Palestinians of different ages and groups, naked, handcuffed and blindfolded, surrounded by tanks and vehicles. Military.
Hamza was subjected to harsh interrogation for about 4 hours before the occupation forces released him. According to his cousin, “The Israeli soldier is stupid, and this picture will not break Hamza as he wanted, but it will remain immortal in his memory, reflecting his pride and courage.”
Al Jazeera Net tried to talk to Hamza himself, but his cousin did not prefer that, and said that "he is fine, but he does not want to talk to the media, for fear of his family members."
Killing and displacement
Shortly before his arrest, the occupation forces killed Hamza’s sixty-year-old father, Khamis Abu Halima, and his brother’s wife, Saqr, and her two children, Khamis (6 years old) and Haya (3 years old).
Hamza and a number of his family members refused to displace and leave Gaza City to the areas designated by the occupation forces as “south of the Gaza Valley.” According to his cousin, “he is experiencing severe psychological pressure, and fears for his family members residing in Gaza City or who preferred to leave it towards the south. He refuses to comment on the picture that spread of him, and he was surprised by the wide resonance it caused, even though about 40 days had passed since it was taken without his knowledge.”
Local and international estimates indicate that approximately two million Palestinians are not present in their homes or residential areas, and were forced to flee, whether within one city or to the south of the Gaza Strip, and the majority of them reside in tents and shelter centers, as a result of crimes and Israeli eviction warnings.
On the other hand, Hamza and his cousin, and several hundred thousand Palestinians in Gaza City and the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, chose to remain steadfast and not flee to camps and cities in the southern Gaza Strip, and they are enduring enormous pressure as a result of the Israeli policy of killing and starvation.
Our prisoner brother, Hamza Abu Halima, from Shujaiya
Self-esteem is that I stand before my enemy and stand tall while there is a burning hell inside me. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/epp1tq57R1
— 𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐘 | 🏴☠️ 🇵🇸 💥 (@GIF1109) February 8, 2024
Lion of Gaza
Activists on social media platforms widely circulated a picture of Hamza in front of the Israeli soldier, and his friend Muhammad Sukkar wrote in a post that he attached to this picture on his Facebook account, “Despite the injury and despite the handcuffing... the lion remains a lion. The looks of steadfastness and defiance before the cowardly enemy are enough to make you proud... Beloved friend Hamza Abu Halima.”
On the same post, Muhammad Abu Nasr commented, “For history, this photo will remain an icon, a symbol of steadfastness and defiance, and a witness to the crimes of this entity.”
The "Jerusalem Rising Up" account on the
Source: Al Jazeera