After Israel killed her three sons, she found hope in a newborn. Then he was killed too
After Israel killed her three sons, she found hope in a newborn. Then he was killed too
After Israel killed her three sons, she found hope in a newborn. Then he was killed too
Fatima Nofal gave birth to Zaid after losing three sons in an Israeli air strike in 2023. Fifteen months later, another Israeli strike killed him in central Gaza
In a small room beside an open window, 15-month-old Zaid Nofal slept without a blanket, unable to escape Gaza's sweltering summer heat.
At 3am, an Israeli air strike hit his family's home in al-Bureij refugee camp, burying his small body beneath the rubble.
A few metres away, his 38-year-old Palestinian mother, Fatima Nofal, stood in shock.
Covered in blood and dust as neighbours screamed around her, she faced a tragedy she had endured before: Zaid was the fourth son she had lost to Israeli attacks after three of his brothers were killed in 2023. His death reopened the trauma of 13 October 2023, when an Israeli air strike killed three of Nofal's sons. Only she and her two daughters survived.
At the start of the war, Nofal and her family fled al-Bureij refugee camp, believing the al-Sawarha area in the coastal town of al-Zawaida would be safer.
"We realised the gravity of the situation and decided to flee because we thought it would be safer than staying near the border," she said.
"But we never imagined that the place we went to for safety would become where I'd witness the killing of my three sons and most of my husband's family."