Gaza Herald- Basima Al-Attal had hoped for nothing more than a light touch of perfume on the wedding suit of her 29-year-old son, Darwish, her only boy after six daughters.
Hours before she had expected to celebrate her son’s wedding, an Israeli airstrike abruptly turned Basima Al-Attal from a mother preparing her son for marriage into a mother mourning his death.
Darwish Al-Attal, Groom Killed in His Father’s Arms
Only 48 hours before his scheduled wedding, Darwish was seen moving through the neighborhood, personally delivering invitations with visible excitement. But a nearby Israeli airstrike cut the celebrations short, turning what was meant to be a wedding into a funeral.
Saeb Al-Attal said he had been preparing to invite relatives and friends to his son’s wedding when an explosion struck near the family home. Rushing outside to assist the injured, he found a young man lying on the ground in the darkness, still clutching a cup of coffee.
“I took the cup from his hands and urged him to recite the shahada,” the grieving father recalled.
Saeb recounted that he only discovered the wounded young man was his son, Darwish, when his other son, Mohammed, shouted in shock, “Father, it’s my brother, Darwish.”
He said the realization came moments later when he noticed the wristwatch Darwish was wearing.
The 60-year-old father is now left holding only his son’s wedding ring, which he wears on his pinky finger, alongside a preserved suit and a wristwatch that stopped at the moment of the incident.
The father said in anguish that years of raising and caring for his children had ended in an instant, adding that their happiness was taken from them deliberately.
Abdul Jalil Junaid Left and Never Came Back
A comparable tragedy befell 21-year-old agricultural engineer and Quran memorizer Abdul Jalil Junaid. His father, Anwar, had just finished sending wedding invitations via text message when, only minutes later, he received a message informing him that his son had been killed.
Abdul Jalil had gone out to complete preparations for his wedding, including purchasing his ring and arranging sweets, drinks, and coffee for the occasion. According to his family, he said he would return within two hours, but instead came back carried on the shoulders of mourners.
At his son’s bedside in the hospital, the grieving father sat in silence before softly speaking words filled with sorrow: “My dear son, we had chosen you a bride in this world, but God has chosen for you the brides of Paradise.”
Silent Genocide
The latest deadly incidents come amid continued reports of violations of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which entered into force on October 10 last year.
Data from the Gaza Ministry of Health show that 856 people have been killed and 2,463 others injured since the ceasefire agreement entered into force.
