Ahmed-7 year old- gulped the omelet he especially had asked his mother to cook for him and drank some water. He went into the street and went near “Hawasel” the house where the building materials for his family’s project were stored.

On that day, January 15,2009, and in the Yarmouk District, Ahmed was standing with a group of young men whom the war had prevented from going to schools or work places. They were only chatting about the war atmosphere after leaving their dark homes. All of a sudden, the district was raided by an Israeli F16 which shot many missiles targeting Hamas’s leader, Said Siam. Ahmed was martyred and his cousin and friend Zuhair was injured and other tens of unarmed civilians were martyred or injured.

Ahmed was a diligent student, yet he was mischievous with his brothers in particular. Ahmed liked to frequent his father’s stores on the first floor of their house. There he liked to be in the middle of cement and building materials and watch men getting in selling and buying deals. He liked to learn from them as he wished to get into the same business.

Ahmed’s mother falls in long silence and deep meditation while reminiscing, in great yearning, Ahmed’s voice and figure amidst his brothers. She is longing for every move and gesture she used to see made by this little boy who had departed.

Dua-a, the eight year old sister of Ahmed was the closest of her four sisters to his heart. The girl was extremely shocked when she hurried out on the bang of the explosion to see Ahmed covered in his blood while his mother was hugging him and bewailing. Dua-a says, “Before he was martyred I had called him out of my window to get inside lest he should be hit by one of those bombs but he refused. I got in great pain when I saw him dead.”