GAZA CITY — It was a Friday, when Youssef al-Bazm, his wife and 11-year-old son, Hamza, sat down for lunch in their home in the Sheikh Ibrahim neighborhood of Gaza’s capital city.
It was a meal they’d never finish, as the sound of shelling kept moving closer. “The Israeli tank approached the street of our house,” said the 38-year-old father. “My brother and his family of seven live in the same building. We decided to leave immediately.”
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They grabbed their bags and decided to go towards his sister’s house on Al-Jalaa Street. With his wife and son already out in the street, al-Bazm was closing the door of the house when the tank struck.
“Two shells hit, followed by the sounds of machine guns. Heavy bullets were falling like rain,” he said. “I could not leave the house until the bullets stopped 15 minutes later.”
When al-Bazm went out to the street, he found his wife lying in the street bleeding. She had lost her feet, other people’s body parts were everywhere, and injured people moved on the ground. His son was nowhere to be found.
He pulled away his wife, who had fallen into a coma. She is now in Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. His son is still missing, believed to be somewhere in Gaza City, less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) away from him, but he cannot go and search for him.
“Hamza, is 11 years old, he had a happy and peaceful life. He is my only son, and now I am appealing to the Red Cross to help look for him,” al-Bazm said. “I hope you can bring him back to me…”
Where are Yasser and Roua?
“Why does God allow young children to be killed?” Eight-year-old Yasser asked his mother Rawaa that question a few days before the bombing.
“Plant flowers and say thank God,” the mother answered.
Today, Rawaa, a mother of five, lies with thousands of sick and wounded people inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. In every room, there is a story of loss, pain, and hope, like the one Rawaa shared with us.
On December 8, the last thing the wounded mother remembered was that she was preparing breakfast for her children at home in the Western Sector in Khan Younis.
“I was preparing breakfast for them, and they hadn’t eaten yet.”
“I don’t know what happened. I opened my eyes and found myself here in the hospital bed,” he said.
“My children: Ahmed, Ibrahim, and Ruba were there, but where are Ruaa and Yasser?” It is a question that she repeats daily, while crying bitter tears. “I was preparing breakfast for them, and they hadn’t eaten yet.”
The mother said that the pain of her injury does not compare to the agony of being separated from her 14-year-old daughter, Ruaa, and her younger brother, Yasser.
“She was a polite and respectful girl,” she said of her daughter.
Although Rawaa does not remember what happened with them that day, her husband Musa al-Agha remembers the incident in detail.
“The bombing targeted our house,” he said. “We ran away. I could not determine the source of the shells, as they were coming at us from every direction. We left the western side with great difficulty and carried white flags. We were treating the wounded, including my wife. But I couldn’t find my daughter and son.”
The man contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross to report that he lost his two children, but he has yet to receive a response. “I call on everyone to help search for them,” he pleaded.”I want to know where my children are, whether they are on earth or in heaven.”
No safe place
After more than two months of Israeli bombardment of Gaza which killed thousands of people, including children and women, families have found it increasingly difficult to protect their children. Many say there is no safe place left in Gaza.
The search process is getting ever harder
Some have made bracelets bearing the names of their children, which they wear in case they will need to be identified in the event of being lost in an Israeli strike. Others wrote the names of their missing children and family members on the walls of their destroyed homes, hoping to return to search for them or that competent authorities would undertake this task.
But the search process is getting ever harder.
A United Nations assessment showed that about 40,000 buildings in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed since the conflict began on October 7.
This massive destruction has left thousands of people missing, most of them, “under the rubble or on the roads where the Israeli occupation is present,” according to Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.
“The number of missing people has exceeded 10,000 so far, and 50% of them are children who are still under the rubble or on the roads,” he said. “The fate of many of them remains unknown.”
He said other government agencies, including the civil defense and ambulances, have searched for the missing, but the capabilities and equipment are too light, and they need heavy equipment to pull out the dead. “We have issued a call to all international institutions and all countries of the world to support our emergency needs,” al-Qidra says.
There are dozens of pages on social media and WhatsApp groups that follow news of missing persons, especially children. Parents approach anyone arriving from areas close to their homes to ask about the fate of those left behind.
Detentions and kidnappings
However, the question asked by Palestinian mother Zeenat Abdullah al-Samouni is different. Her son was kidnapped and arrested by Israeli forces before her eyes while they were evacuating their area and heading south. About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.
We met al-Samouni in Deir al-Balah camp for displaced people in central Gaza, where she shelters in a single tent alongside six other people, including her grandchildren and her daughters-in-law.
“My heart is burning in fear for my son.”
“The Israelis distributed leaflets urging us to go south to ensure our safety, and this is what my family and I decided to do,” she said.
On the way, her 17-year-old son, Hammam, was arrested by the Israeli military.
“My son never left me for a moment. He feels lost without me,” she said. This mother’s tears did not stop during our meeting, and she kept repeating: “My heart is burning in fear for my son.”
