Since the war started, more than 30,000 people have been killed during Israel’s bombardment and invasion. Here are some of their stories.
They served cappuccinos, repaired cars and acted onstage. They raised children and took care of older parents. They treated wounds, made pizza and put too much sugar in their tea. They loved living in the Gaza Strip or sought to leave it behind.
They represent a fraction of the more than 30,000 people who local authorities say have been killed in Gaza in five months of war. Their stories offer a snapshot of the vast human loss — 1 in every 73 of Gaza’s 2.2 million people.
More than two-thirds of the total deaths were women and children, local authorities say. Often, they were killed with their families in Israeli airstrikes. Many thousands were fighters for Hamas, according to Israel, which says it is trying to eliminate the group that led the October 7 attacks while limiting civilian casualties.
Hamas ruled Gaza and ran a covert military organisation, the identity of its fighters unclear, even to other Gaza residents. Some residents supported it, some opposed it; everyone had to live with it. After decades of conflict, hatred of Israel was common, and many Gaza residents cheered the fighters who attacked Israel.
Here are some of the people who have been killed in Gaza, as recalled by friends and relatives and documented in social media posts, news articles and other sources.
Youth is a key feature of Gaza, where nearly half of the population is younger than 18, according to UNICEF. Gaza’s health authorities say that more than 13,000 children have been killed in the war.
Farah Alkhatib, 12
She and her twin sister had names that rhymed. She loved to adorn her outfits with colourful accessories and relished the attention she and her sister received from neighbours. She was killed in a strike on her family’s building. Her sister, Marah, survived, as did their father and mother, who gave birth to a third daughter a few weeks later. They named her Farah.
Siwar, 3, and Selena al-Raiss, 21 months
The older sister loved Kinder chocolate, Pringles and strawberry juice. The younger loved to play with a plastic jeep embellished with a duck.
Lubna Elian, 14
Her father bought her a violin, and she loved it, taking lessons at a Palestinian music school. She dreamed of becoming a star.
Yousef Abu Moussa, 7
He was close with his father and tagged along with his mother to the gym where she worked as a trainer. She called him “medallion,” because he was always hanging on his parents. He wanted to be a doctor, like his father.
Nada Abdulhadi, 10
She was a top student who liked to draw nature scenes, rollerblade and jump on her trampoline. During the war, she played teacher to her siblings and cousins to distract them. She was killed in a strike that destroyed her family’s home. Her sister, Leen, 8, died four days later, trapped in the rubble.
Youmna Shaqalih, 4 months
She was the centre of attention. Her mother, Maram, loved to dress her up for pictures. She was killed in October. Her mother was killed in a separate strike 11 days later.
A blockade has shaped nearly every aspect of life in Gaza. Since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed the blockade, limiting the movement of goods in and out of the territory and making it difficult, if not impossible, for many Gaza residents to leave. In that period, there have also been several wars and deadly clashes with Israel.
Faida Al-Krunz, 60
She raised five children — four boys and a girl — who gave her 15 grandchildren. She was set to leave Gaza for the first time, to visit Turkey with her husband to see two of their adult sons and their families. She had packed several suitcases with traditional Palestinian foods: olive oil, a spice mix called za’atar and local greens used to make stew. But the war broke out three days before the trip. She never left.
Saud Al-Krunz, 61
His parents were displaced to Gaza from what became Israel in 1948. He never finished high school but worked to support his 12 siblings. His experience gave him an enduring faith in education for his five children, to make sure they had better lives. Later, he mediated family conflicts, often siding with his sons’ wives over his sons. He was killed in October alongside his wife, Faida, and nine of their children and grandchildren.
Ahmed Abu Shaeera, 39
He was a car mechanic who loved to tinker, including making the gate to his family’s home automatic. He left Gaza only once, for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where his brother lived. He didn’t know how to scan his passport at the airport. It was his first time on an plane. “Everything was new to him,” his brother said.
Youssef Salama, 69
An Islamic scholar, he preached at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a holy site cherished by Palestinians. He later served as the minister of religious affairs for the Palestinian Authority and remained committed to Jerusalem. “Palestine has no value without Jerusalem, which is the pearl of Palestine, and Jerusalem has no value without Al-Aqsa,” he said.
Hedaya Hamad, 43
She focused on mental health, a rare but much-needed specialty in Gaza, at the Palestine Red Crescent Society. She worked with people who had been wounded and displaced by Israeli attacks on Gaza as well as with emergency medical workers.
Salah Abo Harbed, 23
Enchanted by online videos of parkour enthusiasts doing stunts in urban spaces around the world, he tried it himself on Gaza’s beaches. After the 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, he practised on the rubble, leaping, landing and rolling on buildings brought down by Israeli airstrikes. “When Salah played, he felt free,” recalled a friend from the Free Gaza Circus Center, where he taught circus arts to children.
Jeries Sayegh, 67
Born into a refugee family and a member of Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Christian minority, he lived through several wars but still believed that all humans, including the Israelis who occupied and imposed a blockade on Gaza, were created in God’s image. He fondly recalled working as a bank accountant in Israel decades ago and thought it was still possible for the peoples of the Holy Land to live together. He died from an undiagnosed health crisis after clashes prevented him from reaching a hospital.
Sayel Al-Hinnawi, 22
While studying law, he hosted planning meetings and designed banners for protests under the slogan “We Want to Live,” which criticized Hamas’ governance of Gaza and called for better living conditions. But reflecting the complex views many Gaza residents hold toward Hamas, he lauded “the men of the resistance” on October 7. “Officially, today is the greatest day in our generation’s entire life.”
Differing views about what Gaza could be were held by many residents.
Inas Al-Saqqa, 53
She broke barriers in Gaza’s socially conservative society as an actor, playwright and artist. She performed in plays in Gaza and elsewhere and starred in films, including “Sara” in 2014, which addressed the taboo topic of femicide. She taught theatre and arts in Gaza and at the ASHTAR theatre in Jerusalem. She moved to Egypt after the 2014 Gaza war but returned a few months before the current war. She was killed in her home with three of her five children.
Roshdi al-Sarraj, 31
He founded a media production company and worked as a filmmaker and photographer. He served as a camera assistant on Ai Weiwei’s 2017 documentary Human Flow and liked to show Gaza in a positive light, especially with drone footage shot near the sea. He was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife and baby daughter when the war broke out, and returned home to document the conflict, posting a video that called the October 7 attackers “Palestinian freedom fighters.”
Heba Zagout, 38
She made paintings in bold colours about Palestinian themes, showing mosques and churches side by side and the Old City of Jerusalem, which she was never able to visit. She had four sons, supported her family as an art teacher and was trying to put on her first exhibition.
Ali Al-Sharawi, 45
For a decade and a half, he served coffee at Mazaj, an upscale cafe in downtown Gaza City, helping it reopen swiftly after each conflict. “So we meet again,” he told returning customers. “We are all alive.”
A small place Gaza is about six times the size of the New York City borough of Manhattan with a higher population density than Chicago. People forged close ties with large, extended families and their neighbours, often depending on one another.
Amneh Hanah, 38
She was a jokester who took care of her siblings and mother, a widow, with whom she ran a business doing traditional Palestinian embroidery. She had recently completed a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Belal Abu Samaan, 38
He was a fitness enthusiast who taught physical education at the American International School in Gaza and volunteered as the coach of the Palestine Athletics Federation. He kept his athletes going despite poor facilities, often buying them training shoes with his own money. He called October 7 “a bright morning for the Palestinians and the resounding fall of Israel” in a post on Facebook.
Heba Jourany, 29
She was a physical therapist who was working toward certification to teach yoga to other women. She dreamed of visiting Ireland.
Farajallah Tarazi, 80
A member of Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Christian minority, he studied aviation engineering in Egypt and worked for airlines in Libya and Uganda before returning to Gaza and managing an aid program for the United Nations. He lived near the sea and swam often when the weather was warm. He sheltered with other Christians in a church during the war and died after clashes prevented him from reaching a hospital after his gallbladder ruptured.
Mahmoud Elian, 47
The father of the child violinist, he worked for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, coordinating rare treatment outside Gaza for patients with serious illnesses. He told a friend, “There is something beautiful in Gaza despite everything that happens.”
Riyad Al-Khatib, 58
He worked in factories and on construction sites in Israel before the Gaza blockade and spoke fondly of that time, saying he wished the situation would improve so that he could go back. In the meantime, he loved to sit in the sun, smoke cigarettes and drink tea with so much sugar that it became a family joke.
Abdallah Shehada, 69
He performed complicated operations on Gaza’s war wounded while running Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah until his retirement. His wife, also a doctor, died of cancer, and he dealt with loneliness by hosting large meals to bring people into his home.
Osama Al-Haddad, 50
He opened his first marble workshop in his garage and expanded his business to produce marble and granite countertops, sinks and stairs at a factory in Gaza City. He raised pigeons and goats.
An uncommon mix emerged in Gaza because of its school system and its isolation. It has an educated population with high poverty and unemployment rates. Many Gaza residents with strong credentials struggled to find suitable jobs.
Abdulrahman Abuamara, 39
He studied engineering in Gaza and Spain before trying unsuccessfully to settle in Norway, where he worked in an Italian restaurant. Back in Gaza, with engineering jobs scarce, he opened an eatery, Italiano, that served pizza, calzones, salads and shawarma. It was so successful that in 2021 it moved into a shiny new location, with dozens of employees, three floors and rooms for private events. He was killed with his parents and two brothers in a strike on the building. His wife and two children, 3 and 6, survived.
Ghadeer Mohammed Mansour, 24
In the two years before the war, she earned a university degree in software engineering, got married and became pregnant with her first child. She was killed alongside her husband before the baby was born.
Salah and Khaled Jadallah, 27
The twins did not find work related to their university degrees in English literature, so they started a business importing clothes, shoes and accessories to resell from their family’s apartment, often delivering orders themselves. They pumped iron at Oxygen Gym and posted their workouts on Instagram.
Doaa Jadallah, 29
The twins’ sister, killed in the same strike as her brothers and her father, worked as a medical laboratory analyst at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza and at a private lab, which featured her smile in its advertisements to encourage patients to come in for tests. She cherished her financial independence and dreamed of earning a master’s degree.
Mahmoud Nasri Salem AlNaouq, 25
He did translation for a human rights group and worked for a think tank focused on improving Palestinians’ lives. Shortly before the war, he received a scholarship for a master’s degree in international relations in Australia. He hoped to become a diplomat. He was killed alongside 20 family members in a strike that destroyed his family’s home.
Jannat Iyad Abu Zbeada, 21
She worked in graphic design to help support her family while studying multimedia at a Gaza university. She hoped to teach there one day.
Rami Abu Reyaleh, 32
He had a degree in business administration but took construction jobs he hated and helped his family fish off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. He loved soccer and supported FC Barcelona. His life’s longest trip took about an hour, a drive to a friend’s wedding elsewhere in Gaza.
Motaz Alhelou, 31
He tried to start a new life outside Gaza, spending time in Egypt, Turkey, Bolivia and Argentina and crossing the dangerous Darién Gap in Panama to reach the US-Mexico border. He claimed political asylum, telling US authorities that he had been a member of Hamas’ military wing for a few years before fleeing Gaza to escape the group. He was denied asylum and returned to Gaza before the war. He chipped in at his family’s furniture business and considered getting married. “I wanted to get out, I swear to God, because I don’t bet on Gaza,” he wrote on Facebook as the war raged. “I am living through a third war on this cursed land.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Ben Hubbard, Lauren Leatherby, Hiba Yazbek, Abu Bakr Bashir, Raja Abdulrahim and Emma Bubola
©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES
