{"id":226812,"date":"2025-01-29T10:07:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T10:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/he-survived-15-months-of-war-in-gaza-then-died-as-cease-fire-neared\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T10:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T10:07:22","slug":"he-survived-15-months-of-war-in-gaza-then-died-as-cease-fire-neared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/he-survived-15-months-of-war-in-gaza-then-died-as-cease-fire-neared\/","title":{"rendered":"He Survived 15 Months of War in Gaza, Then Died as Cease-Fire Neared"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/28\/multimedia\/gaza-deaths-01-jqgh\/gaza-deaths-01-jqgh-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"He Survived 15 Months of War in Gaza, Then Died as Cease-Fire Neared\" title=\"He Survived 15 Months of War in Gaza, Then Died as Cease-Fire Neared\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After more than a year of Israeli bombardment in Gaza, there were few blessings left for Talal and Samar al-Najjar to count by the time a cease-fire deal was agreed to this month. Their home was in ruins, they and their children were displaced, and they were staving off hunger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet they counted themselves lucky: Their family of seven was intact, something to feel grateful for in the war between Israel and Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands. Many more are likely to be unearthed from the rubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then, with only hours until the Palestinian enclave\u2019s 15-month nightmare was set to pause, disaster struck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their 20-year-old son, Amr al-Najjar, had rushed to their village in southern Gaza, hoping to be the first one home. Instead, he became one of the last lives claimed before the fragile truce began.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019d been waiting so long for this moment, to celebrate the cease-fire, but our time of joy has turned into one of sorrow,\u201d Mr. al-Najjar, 49, told The New York Times in an interview after the funeral for his son.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Not long after 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 19, when he thought \u2014 mistakenly \u2014 that the cease-fire had begun, Amr al-Najjar was killed alongside two cousins in what survivors said was an Israeli strike. The Israeli military denied it had attacked the area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their funeral was a humble affair. A cluster of relatives sat in a circle of plastic chairs to pray outside a dusty, sprawling camp of tarpaulin tents and wooden shacks on the outskirts of the southern city of Khan Younis. This is where the al-Najjars, like hundreds of other families, had sought refuge from Israeli bombardment in its campaign against Hamas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the course of the war, which began in October 2023 after Hamas led an attack on Israel that, the Israelis say, killed about 1,200 people, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gazan health authorities. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The night before the cease-fire, the al-Najjars had packed up belongings in their makeshift tent. Ms. al-Najjar, 44, was eager to return to Khuzaa, their verdant farming village along Gaza\u2019s southern border. She wanted to see what was left of their home, she said, and imagined herself greeting friends, relatives, and neighbors with a joyful embrace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But as they waited for sunrise, Ms. al-Najjar could not repress a growing unease. Her son, Omar, who departed in the early hours of the morning, had left behind his bag. \u201cHe\u2019d told me: I have a feeling I won\u2019t come back,\u201d she recalled, then broke into sobs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The family knew that returning quickly to their home, less than a mile away from the frontier with Israel, to which Israeli tanks and troops would be withdrawing, might be risky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But to many Gazans, all too familiar with periodic wars and the cease-fires that eventually end them, the first tentative hours of a truce are critical: Many race home to protect whatever has been spared in the war from looters who swoop in to snatch whatever can be sold from the ruins \u2014 everything from rebar to kitchen utensils.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Amr al-Najjar\u2019s brother Ahmad, who survived the attack, said the pair waited early on the Sunday the cease-fire was to take effect, along with two of their cousins, on the outskirts of Khuzaa, ready to enter at 8:30 a.m., the scheduled start of the truce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey hoped to save whatever they could, like pieces of wood or any belongings,\u201d their father said. The family could use the materials to build a shelter in their destroyed homes until aid groups could provide them with tents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Gazans, Mr. al-Najjar said, the end of the fighting was not an end to their worries: \u201cIt\u2019s another struggle \u2014 an internal battle to survive and rebuild whatever we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the two al-Najjar brothers set out, a cousin filmed Amr smiling on a motorbike, wearing a red T-shirt, a brown jacket and jeans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou\u2019re going to be the first people there!\u201d the cousin shouted, laughing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAnd I\u2019m going to return a martyr,\u201d he replied with a smile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For his parents, it was an unnerving premonition. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Not long after his sons left, Mr. al-Najjar saw on the news that the truce had been delayed until 11:15 a.m. In a panic, he and his wife tried repeatedly to call and text their sons and nephews. But the young men were in an area without reception \u2014 and had no way to learn of the cease-fire\u2019s postponement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">From the outskirts of Khuzaa, Amr al-Najjar\u2019s older brother Ahmad said, they listened and waited as fighting continued right up to 8:20 and then grew quiet. Shortly after 8:30, they entered the town, encouraged by the arrival of others doing the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ahmad al-Najjar peeled away from the group after stumbling upon a gas cylinder, from which he hoped to retrieve a bit of fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSuddenly, I heard the whooshing sound of a missile,\u201d he said. He dived behind a pile of rubble as an explosion shook the earth around him. \u201cWhen I looked up, I saw smoke rising from the place they had been standing,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t see them \u2014 only smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. al-Najjar fled the village amid tank, drone, and sniper fire, he said, shocked and confused until he later learned that the truce had been delayed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel\u2019s military said it was \u201cnot aware of a strike\u201d at the coordinates the Najjar family provided The Times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gaza\u2019s emergency rescue services say 10 Gazans lost their lives between the time the cease-fire was meant to take effect and when it actually did. Residents of Khuzaa say the number killed in their village alone was 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">None of the Najjar cousins who were killed, who ranged in age from 16 to 20, had ties to militant groups, their parents said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Not long after the strike, Amr al-Najjar\u2019s relatives began to search for the missing men. As one of them filmed himself trekking through torn-up roads and rubble in Khuzaa, he stumbled upon the lifeless body of a young man in a red T-shirt, brown jacket and jeans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOh God, have mercy on you, Amr,\u201d he can be heard moaning as he films the body. \u201cGod\u2019s mercy upon you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. al-Najjar described her son as the kind of person who loved to tease and joke, and who as a grown man still begged her to make sweets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More than a week into the cease-fire, his father is still struggling to find any solace in the moment he had so yearned for. Hope is a feeling from the days when he imagined that an end to the fighting would bring him the chance to watch his son build a future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAll I wanted was to see him fulfill his dreams,\u201d Mr. al-Najjar said. \u201cNow, my son is gone, and our dreams are gone with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/29\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-cease-fire-deaths.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After more than a year of Israeli bombardment in Gaza, there were few blessings left for Talal and Samar al-Najjar to count by the time a cease-fire deal was agreed to this month. Their home was in ruins, they and their children were displaced, and they were staving off hunger. Yet they counted themselves lucky: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/28\/multimedia\/gaza-deaths-01-jqgh\/gaza-deaths-01-jqgh-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7275,6836,43,32652,171473,178025,31,178026,103120,3295,3102],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226814,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226812\/revisions\/226814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}