When I heard about the murder of Mohammed Noufal and his colleagues from Tel Aviv Tribune, my first thoughts were with his sister, Janat. I vaguely knew her at university; She is a polished girl with a beautiful smile, who studied digital media at the Islamic University of Gaza and directed an online store where she sold accessories for girls.
She had already lost several family members when she received the news from her brother’s martyrdom. I thought of her and the devastating pain in which she was to be. I have thought of how its story reflects the fate of so many Palestinian families who, in the past two years, have faced slow death, a member by member.
On October 30, 2023, just three weeks after the start of the war, a missile hit Jabalia’s family home. She and her sisters and her brothers survived, although Mohammed was seriously injured. Their aunt and his uncle were killed.
A year later, on October 7, 2024, Omar, the older brother of Janat, was martyred while he was trying to save the wounded from a bombed house; The Israeli army has again struck the same place, killing him.
Then, on June 22 of this year, his mother, Muneera, died. She visited relatives when the Israeli army bombed the region. Muneera was struck by bursts of shells; She arrived at the hospital still alive but died 39 hours later.
On August 10, Israel bombed a media tent near the Al-Shifa hospital, killing Janat Mohammed’s brother and six other journalists.
Now, Janat has only his father Riyadh, his brother Ibrahim and his sisters Ola, Hadeel, Hanan is gone.
“(When) my older brother Omar died, we heard our father moan and say:” You broke my back, oh my god, “said Janat when I contacted him.
“When we lost my mother Muneera, my father said in a hoarse voice:” we were struck, “she continued.
“When my brother Mohammed, the journalist, was martyred, he said nothing. He did not cry, he did not cry, he did not say a word. And that is when fear began to slip into my heart … I feared that his silence was breaking it forever. I feared his calm more than I feared his sorrow.”
After Mohammed was martyred, Janat tried to convince his brother Ibrahim to leave her work as a journalist because she was afraid for him. He was the last one who remained to support her, their father and his sisters. But he refused, saying that nothing would happen to them except what God had written for them. He told him that he wanted to follow the inheritance of their martyred brother and his colleagues.
For Janat, the pain of losing his loved ones has become unbearable. “Whenever we think we could breathe a little, the next loss would bring us back in the same darkness. Fear is no longer a feeling of pass, but a constant companion, looking at us from all over our life. The loss has become a part of our existence, and the grief has settled in the details of daily life, on each smile on a break and each prolonged silence, ”she told me.
His words echo the suffering of so many families here in Gaza.
According to the government’s media office, in March of this year, 2,200 Palestinian families were completely wiped out of the civil register, all their members killed. Over 5,120 families were only one member.
Palestinian families are constantly threatened with extinction with each wave of bombing.
My own loved ones were also erased from the civil register. My father, Ghassan, had eight cousins – Mohammed, Omar, Ismail, Firas, Khaled, Abdullah, Ali and Marah – who formed a large branch of our extended family. After the start of war, we started to lose them one after the other. Each loss left a new void, as if we were pulled in a spiral of recurring grief.
Only the wives of Omar and Ismail and their two children now remain. My father quietly carries this immense pain, holding his pain deeply inside.
Today, we are faced with another Israeli offensive in northern Gaza. Last year, the Israeli assault killed tens of thousands. Those who challenged forced displacement to the south paid a high price.
Many of us who have lost dear beings no longer want to relive horror. Last year, my family stayed in the north, but we are now exhausted. We are exhausted from the bombardment, death and terror that we have known. We will leave this time. Janat’s family, who has proudly kept their house half destroyed in Jabalia, will also leave.
We have experienced atrocities that no human being can endure. We can no longer death.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.