Gaza woman faces more misery two years after she was pictured in grief
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GAZA: Two years of Israeli bombardment of Gaza has piled grief upon grief for displaced Palestinian Inas Abu Maamar.
In the first days of the war, a photograph showed Abu Maamar stricken in a hospital morgue, cradling the shrouded body of her five-year-old niece Saly. Since then, Israeli airstrikes and tank shells have killed many of her close relatives and left her bereaved, hungry and homeless, caring for her orphaned young nephew.
Killing of young niece
Saly was killed when an Israeli missile struck the family home in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Photographer Mohammed Salem found Abu Maamar embracing her body at the Nasser Hospital morgue in Khan Younis on Oct 17, 2023.
The blast also killed Abu Maamar’s aunt and uncle, her sister-in-law and her cousins, as well as Saly’s baby sister Seba. This summer, her father and her brother Ramez, Saly’s father, were killed while bringing food back to the family.
Inas Abu Maamar now looks after her nephew Ahmed, the son of Ramez and younger brother of Saly. Having lost his mother, both sisters and maternal grandparents 10 days into the conflict, he lost his father and paternal grandfather when they were killed by Israelis while fetching food
They are among more than 67,000 Palestinians who local health authorities say have been killed by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Thousands more are believed to be lying dead under the rubble but not counted in the official death toll.
“The war destroyed us all. It destroyed our family, destroyed our homes. It left pain and loss in our hearts,” said Abu Maamar, who is now 38.
Life in tent encampment
Abu Maamar and her remaining relatives have fled waves of Israeli bombing and ground incursions several times over the past two years and are now living in a crowded tent encampment on bare sand near the beach. Conditions are harsh. Sickness is rife. Food and clean water are scarce. Israeli bombardments terrify the traumatised population.
Abu Maamar’s greatest concern is for her nephew Ahmed, the son of Ramez and younger brother of Saly. Having lost his mother, both sisters and maternal grandparents 10 days into the conflict, he lost his father and paternal grandfather when they were killed while fetching food in June after it had run out the previous day, Abu Maamar said.
“His father would take him around, play with him, take him to the beach, take him around to see his aunts,” Abu Maamar said of her nephew. “His life really changed now. He’s in the tent 24 hours (each day),” she said.
After his father’s death, Ahmed spent a lot of time with a cat he named Loz. The cat died in August, Abu Maamar said.
Waiting for end of war
When this news agency interviewed Abu Maamar a year ago, she said she was “waiting for the cascade of blood to stop”. She is still waiting, and fears the latest moves to end the war will fail unless Trump puts more pressure on Israel. “It is enough for us. What we lost is enough. A lot of our loved ones are gone, we lost them. We left (our homes) with them, and we will return without them,” she said.
“My only fear is for the war to continue. We do not want it to continue. We want it to end once and for all.”
Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2025
