Khansaa Gaza: Mother mourns sons killed by Israeli forces

four framed footage of four males dangle on the wall in the heart of Nawal Abu Hajeela’s residing room in the Shujayea neighbourhood in the Gaza Strip.

Three are marked with the words « the valorous martyr » before their names.

« These are my sons who had been killed, » Nawal, also is named Umm Iyad, told Al Jazeera.

Her oldest son, Iyad, modified into Forty one years mild and father to four kids when he died after a battle with most cancers a 365 days ago.

Her three other sons had been killed in attacks or armed operations against Israel.

« That is Adham, 21, who modified into a member of the Qassam Brigades [the military wing of the Hamas movement] and modified into killed in an operation attack against Israeli troopers in December 2004, » Umm Iyad talked about, pointing at his photo.

« That is Ziad, 26, who modified into phase of the Qassam’s night patrol and modified into killed in 2007 in an Israeli shelling. I modified into making ready for his engagement support then.

« The most attention-grabbing photo is of Mohammed, 31, who modified into killed closing week [April 12] in an Israeli shelling on the Gaza border.

« Even supposing I knew that my sons had determined their paths in resistance, their loss is quiet complex. »

As a tribute to her sons, fifty eight-365 days-mild Umm Iyad is known domestically because the « Khansaa of Gaza », after a seventh century feminine Arab poet whose four sons had been killed in the Fight of Qadisiyah.

« It’s a pleasant honour to be named the Khansaa of Gaza, » Umm Iyad talked about, and repeated what the Arab Khansaa talked about when she received the news of her sons’ loss of life: « Reward be to Allah who honoured me with their martyrdom. »

« I in point of fact bear hope that God will reunite me with them in heaven. »

Umm Iyad has had a heavy load to bear from a younger age.

She modified into married on the age of 15 and had 10 sons and one daughter whom she largely raised on my own.

« When my kids had been younger, my husband worked as a labourer in Israel all day, which added more to my burden, » she talked about.

After 22 years of marriage, Umm Iyad bought divorced. She moved along with her eleven kids into a rented house in Shujayea.

« That modified into the hardest chapter of my life, » she recalled.

« As well to raising my kids on my own, I needed to beat loads of the social challenges that society puts in front of a single, divorced mom. »

Life after divorce

With the support of her two older sons and her family, Umm Iyad managed to glean by.

Despite the divorce, she talked about, she modified into careful not to let which bear an affect on her kid’s relationship with their father, who had remarried.

« My sons pay their respects to their father and they repeatedly focus on over with him, in particular Mohammed. His father modified into devastated when he learned of his loss of life, » Umm Iyad talked about.

She persisted: « I had dreamed of sending my kids to university in list for them to continue their greater education, but our harsh residing stipulations did not allow for that to happen.

« My older sons work as bricklayers to form ends meet, and my oldest, Iyad, worked as a govt worker with the Palestinian Authority before he passed away. »

Nawal Abu Hajeela along with her family in Gaza’s Shujayea enviornment [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]

Umm Iyad, a member of the social committee in her local mosque, is fiercely patriotic.

« I raised my kids to love their fatherland. I repeatedly recall phase in any job, demonstration or match related to Palestine, » she talked about.

 She participated in the foremost two Fridays of the mass demonstrations that had been launched on March 30, calling for Palestinian refugees’ simply of return.

‘Continuously on my thoughts’

Umm Iyad talked about she supported her sons Adham, Ziad and Mohammed on the direction they selected « to resist against Israel » in spite of, as she admitted, the challenge of reconciling her mom’s intuition with what the sacrifices she says her kids needed to form for their fatherland.

News of her most newest loss, the loss of life of Mohammed, came early on April 12, as an Israeli air raid targeted a neighborhood of Qassam participants.

Mohammad, who modified into among the neighborhood, succumbed to his wounds in Gaza City’s Shifa Clinical institution.

« Even supposing I modified into ready for to hear this news in some unspecified time in the future, I quiet feared his loss, » Umm Iyad talked about.

« Mohammed dedicated his life to resistance and believed in the simply to restore his stolen fatherland. He has been injured three times, and participated in three wars, in particular against the 2014 Israeli offensive. »

‘Finest misfortune’

Mohammed left in the support of five kids. The eldest, Asem, is totally six years mild.

« I’m a grandmother to 29 kids, 9 of whom are orphans. Their future after the loss of life of their fathers is my most attention-grabbing misfortune now, » Umm Iyad talked about.

Umm Iyad now lives along with her single sons Raed and Karam; her other four sons live with their families nearby.

Fighting to build up support tears as she regarded on the photos of her four deceased sons, Umm Iyad talked about: « They’re repeatedly on my thoughts, and I race over them each minute.

« I repeatedly pray to witness them again in my needs, » she talked about.