Dozens of my family have been killed by Israel in Gaza, and now Ziyad, too. Only one thing gives me solace [View all]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/24/gaza-khan-younis-strikes-on-civilians

Dozens of my family have been killed by Israel in Gaza, and now Ziyad, too. Only one thing gives me solace

GHAD AGEEL
Thur 24 Apr 2025


My cousin smiled at everyone, bought my son candies, rushed to help when the bombs fell. All that ended on Friday night


My cousin Ziyad was too young to die. He was sleeping at home in Khan Younis refugee camp when the bombs fell just before midnight on Friday. After they heard the explosion, my cousins Mohammed and Moatsem ran to save him, they told me, but he had already died in his bed. He was 44.

Ziyad was a social worker for Unrwa, working with vulnerable families in Gaza’s refugee camps. Every summer when I visited Gaza from my home in Canada, he would buy my little son candies from Asa’ad’s shop – now gone with Asa’ad (who was killed in October 2023) – insisting that Gaza’s candies were the best in the world. Everyone in Khan Younis knew him for his calm presence, gentle spirit and warm smile. He was always ready to help – the words “no” or “I can’t” were never part of his vocabulary. The night before he was killed, he visited the wounded and sick, including my uncle, Kamal.

These attacks come mostly at night, when people steal what sleep they can from the endless explosions and cries for help. Since Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, their light and noise pierces the intense darkness that falls after sundown. And it was the middle of the night when a missile struck the home of Ziyad’s family. The multistorey building had five apartments, all filled with people – three of Ziyad’s siblings and their families, and several displaced family members who had sought shelter there after losing their homes. Khan Younis camp is where my grandparents sought refuge in 1948 after the Nakba, and my family has lived there ever since. Ziyad seems to have been killed instantly. His wife, Samah, and four children – Abboud, Duha, Leen and Obada – were wounded.

His brother Islam was severely injured, and remains unconscious in the partially functional Nasser hospital. Islam’s wife, Du’aa, was killed instantly. One of their children, Ahmed, was thrown from the second floor to the ground by the force of the explosion – doctors are talking about fractures in his pelvis and legs. Ziyad’s sister, Hala, was also wounded, along with her children – Malak, Nour and Muhammad. Three of Muhammad’s limbs were amputated. I’ll never forget the video I saw on Telegram of Hala, walking the corridors of Nasser hospital, her face carrying more grief than any heart should bear.

More. More horrors……..