Those who were martyred were not just numbers, but each one of them had a story (French)

The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip left more than 28 thousand dead in 4 months, 70% of whom were women and children. Some of them were crushed by aircraft bombs, others were shot by snipers on a street corner, or they were killed by the explosion of a tank shell, which led to a massive massacre in a manner Unprecedented.

Le Monde newspaper - in a lengthy joint report between Benjamin Barthes, Samuel Fauré from Jerusalem, Ghazal Gilchiri, Louis Imbert, also from Jerusalem, and Clotilde Mravco and Majeed Zerrougui - traced the journey of 9 civilians between the ages of 3 and 70, out of more than 28,000 victims, not including the bodies buried under The rubble, estimated at several thousand, and the bodies left in the streets.

Palestinian writer Elias Sanbar says, “People say that now, before entering Gaza, you have to take off your shoes because you are walking on the dead,” and these are their stories:

Bilal Jadallah...the godfather of journalists in Gaza

On September 8, 2014, Bilal Jadallah planted 17 olive trees in the courtyard of the Press House, which he founded a year ago in honor of the memory of 17 journalists who were martyred during Israel’s war that year on the Gaza Strip, and called on the international community to put pressure on Tel Aviv to put an end to the attacks on journalists. And their institutions.

On November 19, 2023, journalist Bilal Jadallah (45 years old) was martyred, along with his brother-in-law Abdel Karim Abed, in a car that was transporting them to the south of the Gaza Strip, as a result of direct fire from an Israeli tank stationed outside the center of Gaza City, after he had transported his wife and their children. The four went to Khan Yunis a month ago, and he remained in the middle of the area besieged by Israeli forces.

“There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip. Danger is everywhere,” said Bilal Jadallah, who devoted most of his time during this war to transferring information and photos from Gaza to the diplomats and international journalists he met in his capacity as director of the Press House, which opened in the Rimal neighborhood in 2013, and until the death of its founder, it was one of the last places of life in the city center destroyed by the bombings, and a last refuge for journalists and friends.

Lubna Mahmoud Alyan...a trained violinist

Lubna Mahmoud Alyan (14 years old) dreamed of becoming a “world-famous violinist,” and when she was only 12 years old in 2021, she convinced the jury of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Gaza to give her a scholarship, saying that she was “ready to face challenges,” when One of the judges explained to her how difficult this instrument was to master.

Two years later, on November 21, 2023, the trained violinist was martyred in an Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, where she took refuge with her family, and more than 40 people died with her, including her parents and siblings, the youngest of whom was not more than 5 months old, and her grandparents and uncles. Her aunts and their children.

“Lubna went to the south without her violin,” says her aunt, Khitam Atallah, who has lived in London for four years. “And like many in Gaza, she told herself that she would return home in two or three days.”

Hala Khreis...the grandmother with the white flag

Hala Khreis (58 years old) was leading a march that included about 30 parents and neighbors. They decided to flee the Al-Rimal neighborhood, in which they reside and which is besieged by the Israeli army, on November 12, 2023, when she arrived at the crossroads and her grandson (5 years old) was holding... With her hand and waving the white flag, an explosion rang out and she collapsed to the ground, dropping the bag she was carrying.

The assassination of Hala Khreis was filmed from a nearby building, and the video was transmitted to the Middle East Eye news site in London. It shows the positioning of Israeli tanks at a distance to the west and south of the intersection, and the family is convinced that she was a victim of Israeli gunfire.

After her death, the family lost track of their grandson for a short period. The neighbors took him towards the south of the Gaza Strip, and he ended up with two aunts in Rafah. His mother, who remained in Gaza City, was waiting for the Israeli army to lift the roadblocks to find him. His aunt Sarah said, “He says through... Phone: He is saving money to travel abroad. He no longer wants to live in Gaza.”

Reem Nabhan...the girl in the yellow dress

“The soul of the soul,” Khaled Nabhan whispers to his granddaughter Reem (3 years old) while kissing her eyes, and his body is inactive despite his embrace. This appeared in a video filmed on November 22, 2023, and was shared widely on social media networks.

Reem and her brother Tariq (5 years old) were martyred in the bombing of their house in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. A few hours ago, the children were begging their grandfather to allow them to play outside, but he refused before the bombs tore the sky above their heads.

Sufyan Tayeh... a son of the camps with multiple degrees

The path of Sufyan Tayeh (52 years old) came to a sudden end on December 2, 2023. He comes from a refugee family, grew up in the poor alleys of Jabalia camp, was a model student in UNRWA schools, and entered the Islamic University in Gaza, says the former president. According to the English Department there, "He was a precocious, honest, and very diligent student."

He obtained a degree in physics in 1994 and a doctorate in 2007. He obtained a professorship at his university, then head of the Physics Department, and won the Palestine Islamic Bank Award for Scientific Research for a study on plasma oscillations in 2019, before assuming the presidency of the Islamic University in 2023.

Sufyan Tayeh was martyred on December 2, 2023, along with his family, in an Israeli army bombing on Jabalia, and the university to which he devoted his professional life was destroyed. Wafaa Khater from Birzeit University says, “Preparing such a world requires 30 or 40 years of work.” But we will continue our educational mission.”

Nahida and Samar Antoun... are members of Holy Family Parish

The Holy Family Church contains the remains of Nahida (70 years old) and Samar Antoun (50 years old), a mother and daughter who were shot dead on December 16, 2023 by an Israeli sniper, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The army denied that it was behind the shooting that led to the death. The two women, even though his armored vehicles invaded the Zaytoun neighborhood on December 15 and took up positions around the religious building.

Israeli army shots prevented any attempt to escape, and a tank opened fire on the monastery, causing damage to the building and destroying the solar panels and electricity generators. Then a sniper shot Nahida and Samar when the parishioners were heading to the monastery, which includes the only health facilities that are still working. The mother collapsed first, then the daughter after her while trying to help her.

Donia Abu Mohsen...the orphan student

In a video filmed at Nasser Hospital in Gaza by the international NGO Defense for Children, during the truce at the end of November 2023, Donia Abu Mohsen (12 years old), sitting on the bed, recounted her ordeal with astonishing calm, saying, “After the bombing "The second, I woke up in the rubble. I realized my legs had been cut off. There was blood and I had no legs. I tried to move them but they wouldn't move."

Three weeks after that, on December 17, an Israeli tank shell fell on the girl’s bedroom, killing her instantly. She had explained that the strike that severed her leg, which occurred in October 2023, also led to the killing of her father, mother, and brother. Muhammad and her sister Dalia.

Khaled Masoud...the policeman who loves music

Police officer Khaled Masoud (49 years old) did not want to leave Jabalia, which was part of his identity, hoping that he would have the resources to survive with his six children instead of finding himself in a tent with nothing.

However, at the end of December 2023, his house was bombed so he took refuge in his brother’s house, and in early January, a sniper bullet pierced his leg, and on the 19th of the same month he went to get food and did not return.

A new death at the French Institute in Gaza

Rami Fayyad worked for 20 years at the French Institute in Gaza, and he died on Thursday, February 8, from a respiratory disease resulting from a lack of medicines due to the siege imposed on the Palestinian territories.

Rami Fayyad graduated from the University of Rouen-Normandy. He was a doctoral student in French as a foreign language, a teacher of French as a foreign language, and an inspector of the French language at the Ministry of Education in Gaza. He is the second temporary professor at the French Institute to lose his life since the beginning of the war, after the disappearance of Fathia. Azaizeh in October 2023, and Ahmed Abu Shamala, who had been working in the French consular office in Gaza since 2002, joined them in the bombing of the house in which he had taken refuge.

Source: Le Monde