By Abdallah Aljamal – Gaza

The Palestine Chronicle spoke with neighbors and friends of the family, who were almost entirely wiped from the civil registry. 

36 Palestinians were killed on Saturday when the Israeli army targeted a residential building west of the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.

They were all members of the Tatatibi family.

“The Israeli occupation army bombed a house belonging to the Tabatibi family west of the Nuseirat refugee camp, resulting in the deaths of 36 Palestinians, most of whom were children, including pregnant women,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement. 

The Palestine Chronicle spoke with neighbors and friends of the family, who were almost entirely wiped from the civil registry. 

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‘Preparing Suhoor’

Mahmoud Hamad is one of the volunteers at the Return Hospital in the Nuseirat camp.

He was there when the small healthcare facility received the bodies of 36 members of the Tatatibi family, along with other dead and wounded. 

“They were a very nice family and were hosting many displaced relatives from Gaza City and the northern areas, including women and children,” Hamad said. 

He said Israeli forces targeted them while they were preparing Suhoor, the meal consumed before dawn during the holy month of Ramadan.

“For about a week, the Nuseirat camp has been subjected to intense bombing, which resulted in completely cutting off the internet,” Hamad continued. 

“The Nuseirat camp, which now hosts more than 200,000 displaced people, has been completely isolated from the world, and the occupation deliberately bombed many houses during the first week of the blessed month of Ramadan.”

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Respected Family

“The Tatatibi family members were not involved in any political or military activities,” Mohammaed Attarawi, a neighbor of the family, told The Palestine Chronicle.

“Their father was an elderly sheikh of the local mosque. We were so worried in 2020, when he was the first one to be infected with the coronavirus” he recalled.

“They were very respected among all the neighbors and the residents of the camp.”

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Wiped from Civil Registry

The Tatatibi family was not the only one targeted by Israeli airstrikes on Saturday. 

Another family, the Abu Ma’ala, also from Nuseirat, was completely wiped from the civil registry.

“The occupation bombed the house of the Abu Ma’ala family early on Saturday, and seven people were killed,” Sabir Radi, a resident of Nuseirat, said.

“Abdullah Abu Ma’ala, his wife and children were all martyred,” Radi said, with a broken voice.

“We have been subjected to a genocidal war for more than 160 days now. The bombing was relentless and the death toll is staggering. Many people are still still under the rubble,” he lamented.

Radi said there is no food, medicine, or water in the enclave.

“Gaza is dying of hunger, thirst, and Israeli crimes, while the world is watching. We want this war to stop, and we want to live in safety and peace like every other nation,” he said. 

“But the truth is, the Palestinian people have been subjected to a genocidal war for 76 years by the criminal leaders of the occupation. We must reclaim our rights, and the Palestinian people should have a dignified life, after all the sacrifices they had to endure over the past 76 years.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)