Defenders pay tribute to Khaled Nabhan, Palestinian grandfather known for his grief, charity and defiance.
Israeli bombings in Gaza killed Khaled Nabhan, a Palestinian who became widely known after a video showed him kissing the eyes of his murdered granddaughter and calling her “the soul of my soul.” last year.
Nabhan, known as “Abu Diaa”, was killed early Monday in an Israeli bombardment targeting the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, local sources confirmed.
Israeli airstrikes killed his granddaughter, Reem, and grandson Tarek in November 2023.
A viral video of Nabhan cradling Reem’s lifeless body was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media and was covered by international media. His grief was seen as emblematic of the pain Israeli bombings were inflicting on the besieged territory.
Nearly 13 months later, his own assassination shows the toll of Israel’s war against Gaza and the lack of security everywhere in the territory.
The revered grandfather was killed in an Israeli attack targeting the house belonging to the Abu Hajar family. At least four other people were killed in the attack, including a child, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
In the weeks and months following his loss, Nabhan helped rescuers and doctors care for injured Palestinians – and especially children – while trying to cope with his own grief.
Reem was three years old when she was killed alongside five-year-old Tarek.
Palestinian rights advocates paid tribute to Nabhan on Monday, with many recalling his ties to Reem as well as his charitable acts in the months following his assassination.
“First they murdered his granddaughter, ‘the soul of his soul,’ then bombed his family home and now they have murdered him in broad daylight with impunity,” wrote writer Muhammad Shehada and Gaza analyst, in an article on social networks.
“After Israel killed his granddaughter, he spent a year spreading hope, helping those in need, distributing food to hungry children and kittens, and cherishing every moment he could spend with his mother. »
Palestinian-American preacher and activist Omar Suleiman said Nabhan was killed by “the most evil army in the world.”
“The man had an angelic presence, smiling in the face of genocide, wandering through hospitals and camps to calm people despite his pain,” Suleiman wrote on X.
“I looked forward to the day I would meet him in person. I imagined that the day the genocide would end, and that it would be celebrated with awards on the biggest stages. »
Today a righteous man was killed by the wickedest army on the planet. Khaled Nabhan who we saw bidding farewell to his beloved Reem, the soul of our soul, has joined him in the kingdom of souls where the wickedness of this so-called humanity will no longer touch them. The man had a… pic.twitter.com/xd5y57D9Pq
– Dr. Omar Suleiman (@omasuleiman) December 16, 2024
In February, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, US, cited Nabhan when endorsing the Uncommitted National Movement’s election campaign, which aimed to pressure President Joe Biden to end to his unconditional support for Israel.
“For our grandfather Khaled and the soul of his soul Reem…Vote ‘Uncommitted’ in the Democratic presidential primary vote,” Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said at the time.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 45,000 people, the territory’s health ministry confirmed Monday, marking another grim milestone in the 14-month war.
United Nations experts and rights groups describe the Israeli offensive in Gaza – which began after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 – as genocide, an effort to destroy the Palestinian people in part or in part. totality.
Days before Nabhan’s assassination in Nuseirat, Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people in the central Gaza refugee camp – attacks described by local authorities as a “barbaric and heinous massacre.”
