18 November 2024

The Souls of Rufaida, Arwa and Maysoon

This is one story among thousands that have unfolded during the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by the rogue State of Israel in Gaza. Told by J Shawna, a Palestinian from Gaza who escaped to Cairo with his wife and kids.

This morning, I visited an old family friend from Gaza, now forcibly displaced to Cairo. He shared with me the harrowing account of how his three sisters were executed in Gaza City on 9 July 2024.

His sisters, women in their late seventies and eighties, lived alone in their home near Thalathiny Street in the city centre

At dawn on 9th July, Israeli soldiers arrived and began pounding on their door. The youngest sister rose to open it, knowing that if she did not, they would likely blow it up and force their way inside. As soon as she opened the door, the soldiers shot her in the head without hesitation.

Hearing the gunshot, the second sister rushed to the door, only to meet the same fate—shot in the head instantly and without warning. The soldiers then stormed the house, ransacking it as they moved through each room. When they reached the living room, they found the eldest sister seated. Her health had left her immobile.

The soldiers shot her in the shoulder, leaving her bleeding. After tearing the house apart and completing their search, they prepared to leave. The eldest sister, realising she could not escape and was likely to die from her injuries, pleaded with them to end her suffering. They refused. Instead, they threw an incendiary grenade into the house, setting it alight, and left, slamming the door shut behind them.

We know these details because the eldest sister, in a desperate attempt to survive, managed to call a few neighbours, recounting the events and begging for help to escape the burning house. However, none of her neighbours could assist. The entire neighbourhood was under siege, with Israeli soldiers and drones targeting anything that moved.

Hours later, when the soldiers finally withdrew, neighbours entered the house. They found the bodies of Arwa and Maysoon lying in a pool of blood. The eldest sister, Rufaida, remained in her chair, having succumbed to asphyxiation from the smoke.

May the souls of Rufaida, Arwa, and Maysoon, along with the tens of thousands of martyrs in Gaza killed by Israel, rest in peace. Israeli officials and their U.S. partners must be held accountable. Such crimes must not go unanswered or unpunished.

Their nephew, Muhammed Ghalayini said:

Maysoon was my Grandfather's cousin and my father's childhood friend. Before we returned to Gaza, their house was where my grandfather Abu Amin would stay on visits from Cairo. When we returned in 1989, they were amongst our closest family. Basma Ghalayini, Sondos Ghalayini and I fondly remembered Eid and Friday visits to their home.

Maysoon was a kind and strong woman who was a matriarch in the family and highly regarded and respected.

She conducted many of her family's business affairs, and one of her last messages to my father was to inform him that the sons of Fayez who took care of their shared land had been killed. In work, she would often lock horns with the men over matters of land and business. There's an Arabic saying which translates as:

"we may have our disagreements, but it doesn't change the love between us" 

and never was that more true for the friendship between Maysoon and my father and uncles.

Maysoon and others in the family chose to stay in Gaza. They had all the means to pay their way out and have the best life outside Gaza, but they stayed. They personified the statement that "Existence is Resistance" and were killed for it. In a previous invasion of Gaza, the occupying troops came to their home and told them to leave and they refused. We should be under no illusion regarding what the IOF is doing, forcing people out of their homes through threats, hunger and murder.

This is genocide and if you think it's complicated or that there are two valid sides then you are part of the problem.