Rafah, Gaza – In a small tent in Rafah, Nagham al-Yaziji, 15, and his brother Mohammad, 14, hold down the fort as best they can, tending the house and looking after their seven younger brothers and sisters, the youngest of whom is six years old. -sister Toleen, one month old.
The children have lost both parents in the last four months and have had to take their younger siblings south alone, set up a tent and fight every day as best they can.
Holding Toleen in his arms and gently bouncing her, Mohammad tells Tel Aviv Tribune about the day they lost their mother, Shouq al-Yazji, 37, during the first week of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“That day, my mother asked us to look after my little sister Toleen, who was three months old at the time, as she was going to visit my grandfather nearby,” Mohammad recalls.
While Shouq was visiting his elderly parents, the house next door was bombed, killing everyone inside and in the surrounding houses. Her husband and children discovered it late in the evening.
“Hearing that was devastating,” Nagham says, describing the feelings of sadness and utter loss they all felt when they realized they would never see their mother again.
Left alone
After Shouq was killed, the family struggled without her as their fears grew over the deteriorating security situation in their neighborhood.
Seeking safety in large numbers, their father took everyone to al-Shifa Hospital for shelter. But the conditions there were terrible, with overcrowding and a glaring lack of everything, even access to hygiene.
The decision was therefore made to flee further south and the children’s father began to prepare for the trip.
“My father left us that day to go to our house and get some things we needed. But he never came back,” says Nagham. “We have lost contact with him and we do not know his fate.”
Amid the confusion and worry over their father’s disappearance, the older children were painfully aware that the situation was only getting worse and that something had to be done to protect the younger ones.
“So we fled south with my uncle,” says Nagham.
Their uncle does not live with them. All he could do was help them set up their tent and check on them from time to time.
On a daily basis, the older ones take care of the younger ones and the nine manage as best they can.
“Every morning I queue for water, aid and bread. I light a wood fire and heat water to prepare formula for my little sister,” Mohammad says proudly.
Nagham, as the eldest, worries about her siblings every day. “Life without a mother and father would be excruciating under normal circumstances, let alone such dire circumstances,” adds Nagham.
Mohammad, despite his young age, tries his best to do the things his father would have done for the family, and he seems to suffer that the small makeshift tent where they are all sheltering lacks even the simplest and most basic elements. simple. the most basic necessities.
“Sometimes I go looking for work for a day when we have nothing to eat and I need to earn money to support my brothers and sisters.
“But sometimes I come back without money and they go to bed hungry,” says Mohammad.
Nagham, for his part, takes on the mothering duties, trying to take care of the whole family, especially 18-month-old Youssef and baby Toleen.
“I prepare their bottles for them with the help of Mohammad. I change their diapers and determine what our meals will be each day.
“Yesterday, I managed to prepare falafel for them, with the help of my aunt,” says Nagham.
Although she does her best in her situation, Nagham is still a child herself and struggles with fear, doubt, and sadness.
“I don’t understand everything the kids want. Sometimes my little sister wakes up in the middle of the night crying but I don’t understand what she wants.
“I don’t know: is she hungry? Is she in pain? I often end up crying with her,” Nagham says through tears.
While Mohammad and Nagham hope day by day that the war will end soon and they will be able to find out what happened to their father, they also live in constant terror of Israeli raids and the ground assault that Israel threatens. throw.
“This situation is so terrifying. We are afraid when they bomb at night. I try to reassure my siblings and calm their fears, but I myself tremble all the time,” says Mohammad.
“We no longer know where we would go,” Nagham interjects. “It’s not like there’s a safe place we can take the little ones and leave, so we stay here with our fears.”
“I miss my parents terribly. Life without them is unbearably hard and sad,” concludes Mohammad.
