A 36-year-old father of three from a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Muhammad spoke about his nine-month-old niece Lurein, whose entire family was killed when their home was bombed:
My daughter Lara is nine years old, my son Ibrahim is eight, and my son Aser is three. Now I’m also raising Lurein, my sister’s daughter, who is nine months old. My sister, Sali Lubad-Mahdi, was 37 when their home was bombed and she was killed along with her husband, Khalil Mahdi, 37, and three of their children – Nisrin, 14, Talin, 13, and Akram, 11. Lurein is the only survivor. Now she’s here with us, at the displaced persons’ camp in Khan Yunis.
Sali and Khalil got married in 2002. She was a schoolteacher and he was an accountant. They lived in an apartment they bought not long ago in the al-Taj Tower on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City. They weren’t even done paying for the apartment.
On 25 October 2023, around 4:00 P.M., Israel bombed the tower. There were more than 100 people living in it, as well as displaced persons sheltering there. Sali, her husband and three of their children – Nisrin, Talin and Akram – were martyred. Of the entire family, Lurein is the only one left. A civil rescue team got her out alive. They heard her screaming, removed the debris and found her in her bed.
Lurein was wounded in the thigh and had burns on her foot. She was taken to a-Shifaa Hospital, where they stitched the wounds and treated her burns. At first, no one knew who she was, but after about two hours, her uncles on her father’s side saw her in the hospital and identified her.
Sali and her daughter Talin were buried in the same grave. Two hours later, they found Nisrin’s body and she was buried alone. The next day, they found the bodies of Khalil and Akram, and they were buried together. There isn’t enough room to bury each body separately.
When Lurein was injured she was still breastfeeding. While she was in hospital, my cousin Samirah breastfed her. But on 20 November, after Lurein was discharged, Samirah and her family decided to go south to Khan Yunis. They brought Lurein here with them, to the DIP camp. My family and I were already here. We escaped and came here the day after Sali’s house was bombed, we were so horrified and scared. Samirah brought Lurein to us, and since then my wife and I have been taking care of her together with my mother, Ni’mah Lubad, 62.
When we first took Lurein in, caring for her was hard. She still had wounds and burns that needed treatment, and couldn’t get proper medical care in the camp. We did our best. We managed to get some formula for her, but she had a hard time weaning and kept crying at night because she wanted to breastfeed. For ten days she was also very ill, with a high fever, diarrhea and vomiting. Slowly, she got better. At first, I felt she was very frightened and kept looking for her mother and father and siblings.
The conditions here are very bad. We try to give her whatever she needs. After all, she lost so much. The army bombed and killed her parents and siblings with no justification. I don’t know how this baby will adjust to life without them, and I don’t know what we’ll tell her. My sister’s family was erased from the population registry in a single moment, as if they never existed. Parents living quietly and happily at home with their children, turned in one instant into bodies under rubble.
We’re Lurein’s family now and we hope God gives us the strength to make up for losing her family. I hope we can give her the warmth and love she will never be able to get from her parents and siblings, who were innocent little children. What did they do to deserve having their home bombed and their childhood and lives taken away? What did Lurein do to be robbed of her entire family?
* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 24 December 2023