The Palestine Chronicle has spoken to Hajj Abu Nabil Abu Sultan, the only unharmed member of a family that was killed by Israel in Gaza.
As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has revealed that on average, at least 63 women are killed in the Gaza Strip every day.
The ministry added that nearly 9,000 women have been killed since Israel launched its genocidal war on the besieged enclave.
Israel has “killed 8,900 Palestinian women during the genocide and injured more than 23,000 with 2,100 missing and over half a million displaced,” Gaza’s Government Media office said in a statement on Friday.
The Palestine Chronicle has spoken to Hajj Abu Nabil Abu Sultan, the only unharmed member of a family that was killed by Israel in Gaza. The only other surviving member is Mohammed, who is currently in a critical condition.
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‘Ahlam Means Dreams’
“My son Mohammed got married about a year before the beginning of the war. On October 7, my son’s wife was six months pregnant,” Abu Sultan told The Palestine Chronicle.
Despite the horrors of the war, it was a moment of joy for the family when the woman gave birth.
“She was the first grandchild in our family”, Abu Sultan told us. “We could not celebrate as we would have liked because bombing was everywhere. We were very happy but the war prevented us from welcoming our granddaughter in a festive atmosphere.”
“Due to the war, we could not even obtain a birth certificate, because all civil services in the Gaza Strip are suspended,” Abu Sultan said.
“The baby was named Ahlam, meaning ‘Dreams’, after my wife’s name. We were hoping to offer her a future of safety and happiness,” he continued.
But Ahlam was not even one month old when Israeli forces bombed the family house, killing her, along with her mother, her grandmother, and other members of the family.
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“The bombing also killed my pregnant daughter and her husband,” Abu Sultan said.
“My daughter was a graduate in interior design. Just a few months before the war, she had married a young man from the Issa family in the Nuseirat Camp, in Central Gaza,” the man told us.
“They were visiting us when the Israeli occupation bombed our house. My daughter was killed in the bombing, along with her unborn child and her husband,” Abu Sultan continued.
“With their killing, my daughter’s family was completely wiped out, and the family name was removed from the Palestinian civil registry, turning this beautiful, young family into a record of martyrs.”
Abu Sultan lost all members of his family on that night, aside from his son Moahammed, who was critically injured and is currently at the intensive care unit of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
“Now, my only hope is that I will not lose my son Mohammed. My heart can no longer bear more loss and separation.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Abdallah Aljamal is a Gaza-based journalist. He is a contributor for The Palestine Chronicle from the Gaza Strip. His email is abdallahaljamal1987@gmail.com
