Basil and Adam, young boys playing in Jenin, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers during the Jenin raid in the occupied West Bank, in which two adults were also killed. A video that captures the boys being shot has since gone viral.

The Israeli army arrested 15 others from the refugee camp, which has been a central focus of battles between them and Palestinian fighters.

Basil was studying at Jenin Secondary School in the 10th grade. “His mother, a pharmacist, and I dreamed that he would become a doctor and that he would study medicine — but we never pressured him to choose any stream,” his father, Suleiman Abu Al-Waf, says.

Now, those dreams have been replaced by an indescribable sorrow for the family of Basil, among at least 63 children killed in Israeli attacks in the West Bank since October 7.

“The pain is very difficult,” the father says. “What happened is heavier than the mountains, a feeling that only the parents feel.”

Read the full story here.

A Palestinian boy rides a bicycle amid the rubble. — Reuters
A Palestinian boy rides a bicycle amid the rubble. — Reuters

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