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Gaza -

“Their dreams were hugging the clouds,” say those close to the newlyweds, Maryam Abdel Salam Deeb and Abdullah Ibrahim Abu Nahl, who were killed by an Israeli air strike, turning them into torn and scattered pieces.

Maryam and Abdullah's joy only lasted a day and a night, and Ghalia Deeb, the mother of the bride Maryam, told Al Jazeera Net, "By God, she was never happy."

On the evening of Thursday, February 15, the newlyweds, Maryam and Abdullah, were married in a wedding ceremony. War imposed its quick and modest rituals. About an hour after midnight on Friday, an Israeli air strike plunged them and their dream palaces into the depths of the earth, when warplanes dropped two missiles on a small resort (chalet) in The “Khirbet Al-Adas” area in the city of Rafah, south of Gaza, was home to 19 members of the groom’s family who had fled to it from the east of the city to its depths in search of lost safety.

The bride’s mother, Maryam, holding pieces of her daughter’s mobile phone, which she found among the rubble (Al Jazeera)

Assassination love story

Motivated by great love, Abdullah’s connection to Maryam during a year and a half of their engagement made him hasten the marriage for fear of displacement. The bride’s mother Maryam says, “The occupation’s threat to invade Rafah and Abdullah’s fear of displacement prompted him to insist on speeding up the marriage so that he would not be separated from Maryam.” .

Tears flowed from her eyes without stopping to tell the story of two newlyweds. She says that the occupation overwhelms them with joy (...) Every day her father comes here looking for her, and extracts severed parts of her, and we found one of the groom’s limbs 400 meters from the place.”

The bride's mother did not stop repeating, "God suffices me for the occupation," as she held pieces of her daughter Maryam's mobile phone that she found among the rubble. She said, as she looked around the place that looked as if it had been subjected to a devastating earthquake, "Where are you, by God, you are not happy anymore."

The Israeli air strikes created a deep hole in the ground, complicating the task of civil defense teams in recovering the bodies of 17 martyrs, including the bodies of the bride and groom.

Newlyweds in heaven

Khalil Abu Nahl, brother of the groom Abdullah, told Al Jazeera Net, "They loved each other, and they agreed to marry despite the war, and they said, if we were martyred, we would be martyred together."

Since the treacherous raid, Khalil has been coming daily to the crime scene, despite the danger of the place due to the intense air traffic. He spends long hours searching for the remains of his family. He says, “I found the palm of my brother Abdullah’s hand and kissed it, and I gathered my mother in a bag.”

Khalil loses his balance due to the horror of the shock from which he has not yet recovered, and with great pain he talks about his regret that he was not with his family at the moment of the bombing so that he could be martyred with them, and he says, “My father loved solitude and gave birth to many boys and girls. We were 24 people and now there are only 5 of them, including two.” In the hospital, we survived the raid... My family was wiped off the face of the earth for no fault of theirs.”

Source: Al Jazeera