‘Soul of my soul’: Israeli fire kills Gazan grandfather who moved the world | Israel-Palestine conflict news

Advocates pay tribute to Khalid Nabhan, a Palestinian grandfather known for his grief, charity and obedience.

Israel’s fire In Gaza Last year, he killed Khalid Nabhan, a Palestinian who became famous after a video of him kissing his murdered grandson’s eyes and calling him “the soul of my soul”.

Nabhan, also known as “Abu Diaa”, was killed early Monday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, local sources confirmed.

Israeli airstrikes killed his granddaughter Reem and grandson Tarek in November 2023.

A viral video of Nabha hugging Reem’s lifeless body has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on social media and has been covered by international news agencies. His grief seemed to be symbolic of the pain that the Israeli bombardment inflicted on the besieged territory.

About 13 months later, he is shown killing himself payment Israel’s war on Gaza and the lack of security anywhere in the area.

The respected grandfather was killed in an Israeli attack targeting the house belonging to the Abu Hajar family. According to the Palestinian “Wafa” news agency, as a result of the explosion, at least four people, including a child, were killed.

In the weeks and months following the loss, Nabhan helped rescuers and doctors care for wounded Palestinians, especially children, while trying to cope with her own grief.

Reem was three years old when she was killed along with five-year-old Tarek.

Palestinian human rights activists paid tribute to Nabhan on Monday, many remembering his bond with Reem and the charity work he had done in the months since he was killed.

“First they killed his grandson, ‘the soul of his soul’, then they bombed his family’s house and now they killed him in broad daylight. with impunity“, wrote Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza, on social media.

“After Israel killed her grandson, she spent a year spreading hope, helping those in need, distributing food to starving children and kittens, and cherishing every moment she could spend with her mother.”

Omar Suleiman, a Palestinian-American preacher and activist, said Nabhan was killed by “the worst army on earth”.

“There was an angelic presence inside the man, smiling the face of genocide“Despite his pain, he went around hospitals and camps to calm people,” Suleyman wrote in X.

“I really wanted the day when I would meet him in person. I imagined the day when the genocide would end and it would be celebrated with awards in the grandest scenes.”

Today a righteous man was killed by the worst army on earth. Khaled Nabhan, who we watched say goodbye to our beloved Reem, the soul of our soul, joined her in the spirit world where the evil of so-called humanity will no longer touch them. The man has a… pic.twitter.com/xd5y57D9Pq

— Dr. Omar Suleiman (@omarsuleiman) December 16, 2024

In February, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, USA, quoted Nabhan. Disloyal National Movement election campaign It was intended to pressure President Joe Biden to end his unconditional support for Israel.

“For our grandfather Khalid and his soul Reem … vote ‘No Loyalty’ in the Democratic Presidential election,” Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said at the time.

Israel already has a war against Gaza It killed more than 45,000 peoplethe territory’s Ministry of Health confirmed on Monday, marking another grim milestone in the 14-month war.

United Nations experts and legal groups consider Israel’s attack on Gaza, which began after the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, as genocide, an attempt to partially or completely destroy the Palestinian people.

A few days before Nabha was killed in Nuseyrat Israeli airstrikes Dozens of people were killed in the central refugee camp of Gaza – local authorities assessed the attacks as “barbaric and disgusting massacre”.