“Enough”: A Palestinian Cry from Gaza

22nd May 2025

3 minutes read

In the courtyard of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, women were weeping as they gathered around bodies wrapped in white shrouds.

Nearby, men were performing funeral prayers for other victims of Israeli airstrikes that struck early Wednesday morning.

At dawn, bodies were transported — some wrapped in thick blankets — in private cars and ambulances.

Among them was the body of little Aysel Adnan Abu Salah, barely a year and a half old, according to hospital staff. At the entrance, a young man carried her lifeless body, her face covered in dust, her skull visibly split open.

Beside her, a man held a white bag bearing the logo of the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). Inside were body parts and remains of victims killed in the airstrike that targeted the Abu Salah family home in the area of Abssan al-Kabira.

Despite orders from the Israeli army on Monday for civilians to evacuate that agricultural area, Shawqi Abu Salah, a relative, explained: “The family was poor. They couldn’t afford to reach the designated displacement zone in Al-Mawasi.”

“What did they do wrong?”

One woman lamented: “The Abu Salah family lived in a three-story building. Each floor housed a family — a father, a mother, and their children. They were all wiped out. What did they do? They were just children. The oldest was only five.”

The Gaza Civil Defense reported that dozens of Israeli airstrikes targeted Khan Younis, including the tents of displaced civilians, who believed they were safe.

Israel has ramped up its aerial bombings and ground operations, declaring its intention to take full control of the Gaza Strip.

These attacks are killing dozens every day, with 120 deaths reported on May 16 alone.

“I have no one left”

While a group of women tried to support her, Feryal Abu Salah cried out in anguish: “Mother… not one, not two… I have no one left. We belong to God and to Him we shall return… God is sufficient for me, and He is the best disposer of affairs.”

Elsewhere in the hospital courtyard, women and children sat on the pavement.

One woman, dressed entirely in black and visibly shaking, said: “My husband’s brother, who has seven children, went to sleep at a friend’s house. They bombed it and killed him.”

Then she cried out: “Enough, enough! What are you waiting for? To drink more blood? You just watch this tragedy unfold like a play…”

Inside the hospital room where the Abu Salah family members’ bodies were laid out, men tried to calm another man who sobbed uncontrollably, screaming incoherently.

The Israeli army did not respond to AFP’s request for comment regarding the airstrike.

A Catastrophic Human Toll

The war began after a surprise attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Since then, the death toll in Gaza has reached 53,655, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, including at least 3,509 deaths since Israel resumed its strikes on March 18.