Asil Almanssi
The Electronic Intifada / August 2, 2024
My friend Rajaa lost two of her sons in the cruelest possible way.
Their last few hours together as a family were on a June evening.
Before sunset Rajaa and her children sat together beside their tent in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
Rajaa was baking saj bread, with help from her neighbor Rewaa. Ahmad, Rajaa’s son, was searching for firewood.
Suddenly, Israel launched an airstrike on the area.
Rewaa’s husband Muhammad told everyone to move into his family’s tent.
Together with two of Rajaa’s sons, he then stuck a pole in the ground and attached a white flag to it, letting everyone know that they were civilians.
Rajaa’s sons Ahmad and Muhammad talked about having something to eat. They decided against it.
If they ate, they would need to visit the bathroom. Heading to the bathroom would be highly dangerous while they were under Israeli bombardment.
So they went to bed with empty stomachs.
At 10 pm, the bombing intensified.
The family felt as if they were being attacked from all directions. Israel seemed to be firing at them from the air, from tanks on the ground and from naval vessels in the sea.
Rajaa kept trying to reassure her children. “Don’t be afraid,” she told them.
At 4:30 am, the family realized that Israeli soldiers were driving toward them in tents.
They noticed a yellow light. It came from a bulldozer.
All the children huddled up next to Rajaa. Once again, she tried to assure them that they would be okay.
At 5.30 am, their neighbors Rewaa and Abboud (her son) went out of their tent so that they could go to the bathroom, carrying a white flag.
As soon as Rewaa and Abboud arrived back from the bathroom, two tanks came towards the tents.
Rewaa screamed the name of her husband Muhammad. He was the first to be martyred.
Soon afterwards, Rajaa was shot in the leg.
Almost all of her children were injured. She felt helpless.
An Israeli tank got closer and closer.
Ahmad, Rajaa’s eldest son, threw himself on top of his brothers, trying to protect them.
Rajaa took her 5-year-old daughter Sarah (known as Susu) in her arms and tried to leave the tent from the back.
Yet before Rajaa could move two steps, the Israeli tank was right beside her. Rajaa pleaded with the soldiers inside it.
The soldiers ran over her and her daughter.
Rajaa was pushed down in the sand.
She thought she was going to die. Somehow, she and Susu survived.
In pieces
When she looked over at her family, she saw that Ahmad and Muhammad were in pieces.
Their younger brother Ibrahim emerged. His face was covered with blood.
Ibrahim was shaking and crying.
As she could still hear Israel attacking the area, Rajaa said to him, “Pretend that you are dead. Do not move.”
Eventually, the tank went away.
Rajaa saw another woman. The woman was accompanied by her children and was holding a white flag.
“Please take my son with you,” Rajaa called out.
The woman asked where to bring him.
Rajaa asked that they go to Ibrahim’s grandfather in Al-Mawasi, another part of southern Gaza. Ibrahim knew how to find his grandfather’s place, Rajaa stated.
As she was injured, Rajaa could not walk. She had to crawl, holding her daughter.
“Mama, I am thirsty,” Susu said. “I want water.”
After a short while, a sniper opened fire. Rajaa was wounded again in her arm.
She tried to keep moving but the sniper continued firing. Rajaa threw herself on the ground, doing what she could to protect her daughter.
A man appeared from behind a wall, asking who was screaming.
Rajaa replied that she was injured and needed help. The man asked her to walk, noting that a quadcopter was flying overhead.
Rajaa said she could not walk as she had been run over by a tank. Then she lost consciousness.
She regained consciousness when a woman and her children arrived on the scene. Rajaa begged the woman to bring Susu to hospital.
The woman was carrying blankets and mattresses. But she agreed to leave them behind and take Susu.
About 15 minutes later, the man Rajaa had met a little earlier and some others found an ambulance for her. She was brought to a field hospital in Rafah and underwent surgery.
Rajaa was reunited with Susu and Ibrahim at the field hospital.
She has not yet been able to hold a funeral for her martyred sons.
Asil Almanssi is a writer living in Gaza
