2024-03-08 10:24:57
“I don’t sleep”… the tragedy of my mother, Palestinians who were killed by Israeli bullets or arrested
Latifa Abu Hamid narrates that she charted the path of education and study for her children, not the path of death and imprisonment, and she says sadly: “No mother wants her son to remain behind bars or to be killed,” according to Agence France-Presse.
Latifa Abu Hamid (74 years old) has two daughters and 10 sons, all of whom have entered Israeli prisons. Four of them have been detained for 22 years and have been sentenced to multiple life sentences. A fifth died in prison 14 months ago, but his body is still in the possession of the Israelis.
In 1994, Israeli forces killed another son, who was accused by the Hebrew state of participating in operations that killed Israelis.
Latifa Abu Hamid’s house in Al-Amari Camp was demolished 3 times. In the end, the Israeli authorities confiscated the land on which the house was located; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave her a house in the city of Ramallah.
Abu Hamid says: “Every mother’s dream is for her children to learn and take care of their interests… and start families… There is no mother who tells her son: ‘Go and hit.’”
But for her, children are the children of their community. “They live reality. When they see a mother and father being beaten in front of them, and they see hundreds of heavily armed soldiers storming a camp, village, or city and wreaking havoc, their memories store the events more than adults, and they chart their path as a result.”
Palestinian Latifa Abu Hamed holds a photo of one of her children in her home in Ramallah in the West Bank – February 29, 2024 (AFP)
In her living room, there are pictures of all her children. You look at her and say: “I’m not sleeping.” I try to put my head on the pillow at nine at night, but I cannot sleep until the dawn hours approach due to excessive thinking.”
The situation has become more difficult since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and the Israeli army. Associations that monitor the conditions of Palestinian detainees and their families say that the Israeli authorities have tightened measures since the beginning of the war, preventing visits and the use of mobile phones and television.
Abu Hamid says: “In this situation, my children are inside the prison, and I do not have any information about them. We hear that a prisoner has been martyred or that there is a prisoner who is sick,” and this increases her anxiety.
She continues: “In the morning, I open the living room, greet my children one by one, talk to them, ask them about their conditions, and tell them about my news. And I have mercy on my son.”
She adds: “I seem coherent and strong, and I have great faith in God, but there is intense sadness and pain.”
Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. Despite the peace agreements concluded many years later between the Palestinians and Israel through international mediation, the Palestinian state to which these agreements and settlements were supposed to lead did not see the light. The violence never stopped. The Palestinian territories witnessed a decrease in the frequency of violence at times and an escalation at times. Israel continues its military operations in the West Bank to pursue “wanted persons” and “terrorists.” These operations often include confrontations and armed clashes.
The number of Palestinian detainees currently in Israeli prisons is 9,100, according to the “Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.” It does not include prisoners who were arrested in Gaza after October 7.
“In the heart”
Ibtisam Hussein Hazza (53 years old) says that January 7th “will remain a day marked in my heart forever.”
On that day, Hazza lost 4 of her sons in one moment to a missile from an Israeli march in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
Hazza talks about that day: “They were martyred at the entrance to the village. One of my sons called and informed me that his brother had been martyred… I tried to call my sons’ mobile phones, but no one answered. I woke up my young son to go together to check what happened, but he beat me to it. I followed him, and on the way I fainted. “I went to the hospital and fainted again when I saw them.”
She adds that the news caused her “a stroke in the left arm and left leg.”
She continues: “I pray to God not to put any mother in the same position as me.”
Witnesses narrated that “seven people were sitting at a table in a café where workers gathered in the early morning hours when an Israeli drone fired a missile, killing 6 immediately, and seriously wounding the seventh,” and he soon died.
Palestinian Latifa Abu Hamid sits near pictures of her children in her home in Ramallah in the West Bank – February 29, 2024 (AFP)
Among the dead were the four brothers: Darwish (29 years old), Hazzaa (27 years old), Ahmed (24 years old), and Rami (22 years old).
Commenting on this bombing, an Israeli army spokesman told Agence France-Presse: “A terrorist group (on that day) threw explosive devices during an operation by our forces in (Jenin camp), and an Israeli border guard vehicle was hit. Which led to the death of a female soldier and the injury of a number of soldiers.”
He added: “The group was identified and a drone targeted them and paralyzed their movement.”
Umm Alaa says that her children were not involved in any military action.
The woman, who raised her nine sons and daughters alone, because her husband lives in Jordan, and Israel did not grant him a family unification permit, and she was working in agriculture in Israel with her children before the war, adds: “I wanted them to complete their university education, but they were satisfied with the guidance program.” Universities are very expensive. I only taught Hazza at the Electricity Institute, according to his wishes.”
Then she says sadly: “I don’t know how they died? Did they suffer a lot?
These questions bother her: “I don’t sleep… for barely two hours. I wake up at night and pray. “I remember how I said goodbye to them, opening their photo albums, and looking at them for hours.”
Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, on October 7, following an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel, in which more than 420 Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The most difficult moments in Ramadan
Umm Alaa visits the town cemetery where her sons are buried every day: “I plant roses on their graves and talk to them and tell them every little and big thing… and how I will miss them in Ramadan.”
Latifa Abu Hamid, who hopes that any exchange of hostages and detainees in an upcoming truce in Gaza will include her children: “The situation is difficult during Ramadan. When families get together, I’m alone. I don’t go on a Ramadan trip, and I don’t do anything. Just a plate I put on the table, and I eat only as much as I have a share of.”
1709899333
#people #Gaza #brink #starvation