Child Ali Faraj’s story is another unforgettable wound from memory of Israeli brutality
GAZA, May 20 (YPA) – Ali Faraj, an 8-year-old child, was playing in a small neighborhood in Gaza City with his five sisters around their father, who was telling them bedtime stories. The family lived a simple life, but one filled with love, despite the blockade and indiscriminate Israeli occupation shelling of civilians.
Ali, from Gaza City, became a symbol of Palestinian resilience after surviving a devastating Israeli bombardment that targeted his family’s home in the Yarmouk neighborhood on April 24.
This tragedy, dubbed the “Yarmouk Massacre,” claimed the lives of his father, Faraj, and his five sisters: Zeina, aged 14, Leen ,13, Razan,11, Suad, 6, and Jourie,2, along with 16 other members of the Faraj and Shahto families, most of them children.
His mother, Nuha Shahto, survived with severe injuries but lost both her parents, siblings, and their children, leaving Ali as the sole survivor of his family besides his mother.
Ali was severely injured, thrown to the roof of a neighboring house by the force of the explosion. He was found lying on the roof, stunned, injured, and covered in dust and blood.
At the hospital, Ali spoke in a weak voice: “I was with my father… Suddenly, everything exploded. I don’t know what happened. My head hurts.” His simple words reflected the depth of the shock experienced by a child who lost his world in an instant.
Ali became a small witness to a major crime, a symbol of betrayed innocence in Gaza. His image tells a story of indescribable loss, and his pain has become a universal pain.
He is now a child without siblings and without a home, but he carries an unforgettable story that encapsulates the pain of thousands of Palestinian children robbed of the warmth of family by war. His story embodies the deep pain and fragile hope amid the ongoing war on Gaza.
Ali is no longer that laughing child; he shrivels in on himself, afraid of any loud noise, and wakes up at night terrified by nightmares.
His mother, Nuha, who lay in a nearby bed with critical injuries, described the loss with a broken heart: “The house is gone. My husband, my daughters, my family… they’re all gone. I have only Ali left.”
But without an end to the war, the opening of the crossings to lift the unjust blockade on Gaza, and the provision of psychological support to Ali and other children who have lost their families, Ali and his mother will continue to face an unknown fate.
Ali Faraj, the child who survived death only to bear an unhealed wound, reminds the world that behind every rocket lies a human story. His voice, though faint, deserves to be heard, and his fragile hope deserves to be protected.
Ali Faraj is not a number in a statistic but a child who was deprived of his childhood and has the right to live in dignity. His story is a reminder of the brutality of the Israeli aggression and the resilience of children who are paying a price for which they are not guilty.
The story of Ali Faraj is not just an individual tragedy but rather a reflection of the suffering of an entire people under the Israeli siege and aggression.
YPA