In Al Zaiton Neighborhood east of Gaza, namely; in aL Samony district, hundreds of Al Samony family settled down to live and practice agriculture. During the Gaza war, this family had been subjected to the most atrocious massacre committed by the Israeli forces against unarmed civilians as the aftermath was 30 martyrs and 40 causalities.

Faris, the 12 year old boy was one of the family’s martyrs. Um Faris started to tell us the details of that massacre and say, “The missiles parted our children from us. I found myself crouched in the room corner with my husband who was wounded in the chest. I tried truly hard to save him but I could not.”

When the survived Al Samony members went out of the house, Um Faris saw her son, Faris lying dead beside his grandmother and his sister Rizqa. She tried to get to them but that was impossible as the enemy soldiers were stationed on top of the opposite house and threatened to kill anybody who would approach the dead bodies.

She continued walking and found out that her two sons, Abdullah and Mohammed, were injured as well. Abdullah remained wounded with his mother for three days while the Red Cross failed to reach him. The mother goes on saying, “I did not feel I was alive. My son and daughter fell martyr, two more were injured, one of them was crying to me and to his father for help to save him, but we could not.”

After the war, Um Faris searched in the rubble of the dilapidated house for anything that would be kept for the memory of those who have gone and would never return. She said, “The occupation stopped us from finding anything that belonged to them, but could not stop me from seeing them in my dreams, though covered in their blood.”

Faris was a first grade prep student who always hoped to excel in order to join the college of medicine and become a medical doctor. He used to help his father with carrying the vegetables to the market to sell them there.

A short time before his death, Faris bought a Piggy-bank to save some money in order to buy the clothes his father could not buy for him. The aspired clothes were replaced by a piece of white linen in which he was wrapped on leaving this world.