Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Donate Today
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube Envelope
Search
Close
  • English
  • العربية
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Menu
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Donate

'Everything Is Destroyed, Even Our Memories.' The Aftermath of Another Israeli Bombing of Gaza

August 22, 2022
in Democracy In Exile, Palestine
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Hosam Salem
    Hosam Salem

    Hosam Salem is an award-winning Palestinian photographer and photojournalist, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Al Jazeera English and many other outlets.

    View all posts

Editor's note: This article contains graphic images, including of dead bodies.

Rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel following the launch of Israel's military operation, Aug. 7, 2022. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

On the afternoon of Aug. 5, Israel began its military operation in Gaza against Islamic Jihad, based on claims of the armed group's threats to respond to Israel's arrest of their commander in the West Bank, Bassam al-Saadi. The airstrikes in Gaza, in an operation that Israel called "Breaking Dawn," lasted for three days and ended with a conditional armistice under the auspices of Egypt as mediator.

Israel triggered the attacks, first assassinating Tayseer al-Jabari, a top Islamic Jihad leader, in an airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza City, and then targeting a senior commander, Khaled Mansour, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes later hit various targets across Gaza that Israel claimed belonged to Islamic Jihad, while the armed group fired rockets into Israel in retaliation. When Israel's three-day offensive ended, 49 Palestinians had been killed, including 17 children and four women, and some 360 Palestinians wounded, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. More than 1,500 housing units were damaged by Israel's bombing campaign, and approximately 450 Palestinians were displaced from homes that were totally destroyed.

The body of a Palestinian man killed in an Israeli airstrike is taken to Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital to be prepared for burial. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

We headed to Ibrahim Shamalakh's house, which was destroyed by Israeli missiles, west of Gaza City. "Isn't this tragic? Our market is destroyed, and the house is the same," said a member of the family, 68-year-old Nadia Shamalakh. "We were at our home with our children and grandchildren having breakfast, when we heard our neighbors screaming as their home was bombed. We ran away as we are. We didn't even take any of our belongings. Everything is completely destroyed, even our memories."

After I took these photos, I still see the grieving Palestinians in them, weeping at the loss of their loved ones, their homes and their lives.

- Hosam Salem

At al-Shifa Hospital, Raed Rajab was still receiving treatment with his son, three daughters and his wife, who were all injured together by Israeli airstrikes targeting their house in Shejaiya, a neighborhood of Gaza City. "It was my only son, my wife and my daughters, who are in elementary school, who were at home," he said. "There wasn't any military target as Israel claims. Now, I am here at the hospital, and my family is in a different department receiving treatment."

Raed Rajab and his son, Hassan, receive treatment at Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital, after their house was targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.
An injured Palestinian child receiving treatment at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

Next to him, Ghassan Abu Ramadan, an engineer, was also receiving medical care, while his daughter and wife were being treated in another ward of the hospital. They were injured in the Israeli airstrikes on an apartment in the Palestine Tower, in the center of Gaza City—the building that Israel bombed to kill Jabari.

Akram Abu Qaida was preparing to bring his new bride to the city of Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, but without any kind of joy or celebration, as Israeli airstrikes continued. Minutes before he planned to leave to get her, a missile struck his house and the car outside, killing his 62-year-old mother, Naama Abu Qaida, and her granddaughter, 8-year-old Haneen. Four other children from the Abu Qaida family were also injured in the bombing.

An injured Palestinian child receiving treatment at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

Abdul Hamid Dweik lost his wife and son in an Israeli airstrike that destroyed several residential buildings in al-Shaout, in the center of Rafah. "Ismail was getting prepared for his wedding when they targeted him," he said of his son, who was 30. "As usual, he did not leave his mother, even on the day they died. He hugged her the way she did when she brought him to life," Abdul Hamid Dweik added. "The most precious thing in my life is gone." The attack apparently targeted the nearby home of Mansour, Islamic Jihad's commander in southern Gaza.

Five-year-old Suad al-Bis recovering at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

These are the images that fade from international coverage once the bombing stops, if they are seen at all. As I told The Intercept just after the cease-fire that ended this Israeli offensive, "In Gaza, there are no stories that can give us life; all we can say is how death has taken our lives and the lives of those around us." John Kirby, the spokesman for President Joe Biden's National Security Council, gave the usual American response to Israel's airstrikes, ignoring who launched this latest attack on Gaza and who killed 17 Palestinian children. "We certainly urge all parties to avoid further escalations," Kirby said. "We fully support Israel's right to defend itself against terrorists who take the lives of innocent civilians in Israel."

After I took these photos, I still see the grieving Palestinians in them, weeping at the loss of their loved ones, their homes and their lives.

Najwa Abu Hamada, whose only son Khalil, 19, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in front of their home in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.
The destruction of several residential buildings in al-Shaout, in Rafah in southern Gaza, which were targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.
Bilal al-Nabaheen mourns at the funeral of his father, who was killed along with three of his sons after their house was targeted by Israeli airstrikes in the center of Gaza City. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.
The funeral of 5-year-old Alaa Qaddoum, who was killed outside her home in an Israeli air raid in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

The destruction of several residential buildings in al-Shaout, in Rafah in southern Gaza, which were targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Photo by Hosam Salem for DAWN.

Source: Getty IMages

Tags: GazaIsraelIsrael-PalestineOccupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)PalestinePalestinians
Previous Post

US: Publicly Reject Baseless Israeli 'Evidence' Against Palestinian NGOs, Demand End to Attacks on Civil Society

Next Post

Meta Should Release Report on Content Moderation in Palestine, Amidst Documented Censorship

Related Posts

Demonstrators are raising Syrian opposition flags and placards as they rally against a potential rapprochement between Ankara and the Syrian regime in the opposition-held city of Azaz, on the border with Turkey in Syria's northern Aleppo province, on December 30, 2022. (Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)
Democracy In Exile

Where Would Rapprochement Between Turkey and Syria Leave the Syrian Opposition?

Turkey’s defense and intelligence ministers met with their Syrian counterparts in Moscow late last month, in the first high-level...

Emily Milliken
January 27, 2023
Democracy In Exile

The Silent Branch: How Israel's Supreme Court Crushes Palestinian Rights

Israel’s Supreme Court is a stronghold of justice for Jews only. It does not champion universal human rights, but...

Hagai El-Ad
January 26, 2023
Democracy In Exile

Sisi Is Driving Egypt Off a Cliff

Egypt under Sisi's regime is proof that you can't achieve the material benefits of a modern, civic state using...

Mohammad Fadel
January 25, 2023
Democracy In Exile

What Israel's New Kahanist Government Really Wants

Scholar Natasha Roth-Rowland discusses the history, ideological vision and recent rise of Kahanism in Israeli politics—and the threat posed...

Michael Omer-Man
January 19, 2023
Next Post
A relative of Palestinian Bara Hamamdah, who was shot dead during clashes with Israeli forces, uses a smartphone to take a picture during his funeral in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, on July 14, 2017. MUSA AL SHAER/AFP via Getty Images

Meta Should Release Report on Content Moderation in Palestine, Amidst Documented Censorship

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - OCTOBER 25: King Abdullah of Jordan arrives for his meeting with Austrian chancellor Alexander Schallenberg at the chancellery on October 25, 2021 in Vienna, Austria. The Jordanian king is visiting several European countries this week, culminating with his participation in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, that starts on Sunday. (Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)

Jordan: Six Questions U.S. Congress Members Should Ask King Abdullah During D.C. Visit

January 27, 2023
Demonstrators are raising Syrian opposition flags and placards as they rally against a potential rapprochement between Ankara and the Syrian regime in the opposition-held city of Azaz, on the border with Turkey in Syria's northern Aleppo province, on December 30, 2022. (Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)

Where Would Rapprochement Between Turkey and Syria Leave the Syrian Opposition?

January 27, 2023

The Silent Branch: How Israel's Supreme Court Crushes Palestinian Rights

January 26, 2023

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Aid Conditionality
  • Anonymous Interviews
  • Anonymous Interviews Egypt
  • Anonymous Interviews Saudi Arabia
  • Anonymous Interviews UAE
  • Cases
  • Cases Egypt
  • Cases Saudi Arabia
  • Cases UAE
  • Countries
  • Culprits
  • Culprits Egypt
  • Culprits Israel
  • Culprits Saudi Arabia
  • Culprits UAE
  • DAWN
  • Dawn's Advocacy
  • Democracy In Exile
  • Editor's Pick
  • Egypt
  • Feature
  • Fellows
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights Go to War
  • International Actors
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Lobbyists
  • Lobbyists Israel Palestine
  • Palestine
  • Political prisoners
  • Press Release Egypt
  • Press Release Israel-Palestine
  • Press Release Saudi Arabia
  • Press Release UAE
  • Press Releases
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • US – Egypt
  • US – Saudi Arabia
  • US – UAE
  • USA

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Donate Today

About Us

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Support Us

Donate Now

Newsletter

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© DAWN All rights reserved. | Website Design by KRS Creative.

DONATE TODAY