Abu Samir and Um Samir, an elderly couple, were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
“A neighboring house was bombed on October 29. We live in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and most of the houses are adjacent to each other. Our house was completely destroyed, and my elderly parents were martyred during the shelling. I couldn’t save them from the occupation’s rockets.”
With these words, Samir Al-Lakhawi commented on the brutal killing of his elderly parents in Nuseirat Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
Al-Lakhawi said in an interview with The Palestine Chronicle, “My father, Hajj Abu Samir, who was 85 years old, and my mother, Um Samir, who was 80 years old, used to sit in front of our house in the Block C area in the Nuseirat Camp. Many neighbors loved to gather there.”
“My father always used to tell the children stories about Palestine. He loved to joke with the neighbors, and everyone loved to sit with him and listen to his stories about our homeland,” Al-Lakhawi told us, adding:
“He would tell everyone about Israel’s crimes during the time of the Nakba and beyond. The children and adults were all like children to my father. He was one of the oldest residents in Nuseirat Camp.”
“My elderly mother, Hajjah Um Samir, was kind-hearted, tender, and loving to everyone. The women of Nuseirat loved to sit with her and find solace in listening to her kind words, folk tales and proverbs from Palestinian history. Everyone knows my parents, and everyone loved them,” Al-Lakhawi told us.
They Killed Our Smiles
Al-Lakhawi continued, “The Israeli attack that targeted our neighbor’s house, belonging to the family of Dr. Walid Al-Khatib, was devastating. My father and mother were killed instantly when the missile struck. Their neighbors’ daughters, Eileen and Zeina Abu Lubda, and other neighbors were also killed.”
“The bombing totally destroyed our home. More than half of our neighbors’ houses, the Al-Aisawi family, were destroyed. Around 10 houses in the neighborhood were partially or completely destroyed.”
Al-Lakhawi’s small business was also destroyed:
“I own a private printing shop on the ground floor of our house. I used to print educational materials for children and teachers and engaged in all printing-related work. Through borrowing from my friends, I managed to buy a modern printing machine, and the print quality was significantly improved.”
“”My printing shop has been completely destroyed, along with the printing machine and all its contents. I am now without work, and I have become an orphan with no parents.” he said, adding:
“I have become a displaced person without a home. The occupation killed our smiles and took them from our hearts. We don’t know when the world’s conscience will wake up and rise to stop the occupation’s ongoing crimes for the past 33 days.”
The Heart of the Neighborhood
Hajj Jamal Haroun was a neighbor and friend of Abu Sameer and Umm Sameer.
“I can’t imagine the neighborhood we live in without Abu Sameer and Umm Sameer. They were among the oldest residents in Al-Nuseirat Camp,” he told The Palestine Chronicle.
“They were constantly sitting in front of their house, sharing smiles with everyone. We used to enjoy their presence, but the Israeli rockets did not discriminate between children, women, or the elderly. The occupation’s crimes have not stopped since the beginning of its war on Gaza.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Abdallah Aljamal is a Gaza-based journalist. He is a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle in the Gaza Strip. His email is abdallahaljamal1987@gmail.com
Thank you so much Abdallah Aljamal for continuing to tell us about the people in Gaza, the dead and the living.
You are a very courageous journalist and thank you for sharing with us your stories about these beautiful people, like this couple and the wonderful patissier of the poor.
We pray for them.