Bereaved Palestinian Woman to Spend Ramadan Without Offspring, Who Are Under the Rubble
(AWP) - Displaced Palestinian woman Maqbula Soliman will have to spend the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan this year without her sons and grandchildren, who were all killed inside their house in Khan Younes, southern Gaza Strip, when it was bombed by Israeli forces late last year.
The bodies of her sons and grandchildren have been under the rubble since December 31, causing an indescribable agony to the displaced Palestinian woman as she recounts what happened.
“I am the mother of two martyrs, Midhat and Mohamed Rashad Al-Astal. Mohamed, his three daughters, his son and his wife were all killed. Midhat, his three sons, one daughter and his wife were all killed, too. God Has bestowed martyrdom on all of them,” she said as she choked back her tears.
“I appeal to the Red Cross to grant them a decent burial. As of December 31, until this day, they are still under the rubble of their destroyed house,” she added.
With such a large number of her family members lost, except her youngest son Khaled and his little family, the bereaved mother and grandmother will be spending Ramadan this year with a bitterness that has left a scar on her heart.
“This is the worst Ramadan for us. We have lost 12 sons and grandchildren,” said Maqbula, while sitting outside her tent in a shelter center in Khan Younes.
Khaled, the youngest son, tried to console his mother, but he knows how hard it is for her. In the beginning, she did not believe that her family members had been killed, until he showed her a video of the house razed to the ground.
“May God bestow patience on my mother. We accept anything that God ordains. It is so hard for her, though. She could not believe what happened. She would tell me at times to go back home to find them. I kept telling her that I had seen the house destroyed while they were inside,” she said.
“She didn’t believe me. I was the first to go to the site after news of the shelling attack. I told her that my brothers had been killed. She didn’t believe me, and called me a liar, until I showed her a video clip of the wrecked house,” he added.
Ramadan will never be the same for Khaled, who spoke as he held his youngest child for fear he could lose him, too, in this ceaseless Israeli war that has been waged on the enclave since 7 October.
“Ramadan this year is not going to be the same. It will have no taste. I lost my brothers. We used to spend Ramadan together, and visit them and our maternal and paternal aunts. I still can’t believe that I will spend Ramadan without them,” lamented Khaled.