In the heart of Khan Younis, surrounded by the relative silence of the Gaza Strip under a ceasefire, Shireen Talaba removes ash with ash with a grave. She steps back when men start digging, noticeably her fear. Finally she takes a shovel and begins to dig herself.
In the course of the 15-month Israel Hamas War, the 37-year-old buries her brother Khaled and her two cousins Khalil and Ibrahim in this temporary property in the middle of the city’s debris.
After the war on October 7, 2023, Shireen and her brother were driven out of their house in Gaza and landed in Khan Younis. She said Khaled insisted that when he was killed during the war, he wanted to be buried near her late mother in the city of Gaza. She swore when the war ended, she took the three men and buried her near her house.
“We came eight people, but unfortunately we will return as five,” she told CBC Freelance videoographer Mohamed El Saife. “They were the most precious things in my life. My brother and my two cousins.”
Top helper of the US President Donald Trump defend his takeover plan in Gaza, since critics -including the world leaders, UN civil servants and Palestinians himself -defend the idea.
According to the Gazastel Ministry, more than 47,000 Palestinians were killed during the war in the Gaza Strip. In a study published in the Medical Journal The Lancet in January, however, the researchers found that the number of deaths in Gaza was 41 percent higher for the period between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024 Was reporting.
Shireen is not only in their efforts to move their loved ones’ bodies. In the further course of the ceasefire, many families take the opportunity to call up bodies buried during the war and to give them proper burials in preferred places.
Bring you home
Khaled was shot by a Quadcopter in Khan Younis in June 2024, says Shireen and was brought to the European Hospital in the Central Gaza. A Russian delegation of doctors carried out an operation on the leg, but died of his injuries a few days later on June 26.
Ibrahim was with friends in Khan Younis when the house in which they were bombarded in July 2024, and Khalil was killed near the border between Kerem Shalom near Rafah in Südgaza in mid -October Searched for a job, says Shireen. Both died immediately.
All three were buried in the area in Khan Younis, which was donated as a temporary grave for use.
When she prepared to leave her tent in Khan Younis, Shireen said that she had remained in the area so far and waited for the war to end so that her people could go home to the city of Gaza.
“We wanted to bring them home,” she said. “Even if you are marty and dead, you can be nearby if we want to visit.”
It helps to put the body on the flat bed of the car in new, white body bags, which will carry Khaled, Khalil and Ibrahim to their final resting place. She covers her with a brown ceiling, while the driver drives into the city of Gaza, which are about 25 kilometers north.
Shireen says many told her that excavating the body made no sense because they were dead for so long. But she was determined to meet Khaled’s request and to keep the boys close to her families.
One last farewell
When the caravan arrives in Gaza, a woman is being built from a building. She is here to say goodbye to her sons.
Mona Talaba hadn’t seen Khalil or Ibrahim for over a year – they went south during the war, but she stayed in Gaza city to wait in her hometown.
The 58-year-old matriarch puts a hand on her body, as Shireen emphasizes who is who. The grieving mother pats every body bag with her hand and says a prayer for the boys through tears.
Other family members gather and make their way to the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in Gaza City.
“We were on the mission that we almost waited the entire war,” said Shireen about her plans to bring the corpses home. “I’m happy because I wanted you to feel comfortable.”
In the middle of ruins and destroyed buildings, shireen helps to wear three funeral bags to the grave. Her mother was buried here and the three men are also buried. They are put on rest side by side when Shireen and their family can be seen in tears.
After a moment, Shireen jumps to help and add water to the sand to make a paste that closes the grave and shovels some sand itself.
When the job is done, she reflects on how things turned out for her family and says she was hoping that you would return to Gaza city together.
“But fate would not let us return in the same way,” she said. “I felt in peace when I moved her to Gaza.”
