Earlier than the struggle in Gaza, the Nasser Medical Advanced in Khan Younis was a often functioning hospital. Sufferers would are available and their illnesses could be dealt with by health-care workers. However within the final yr, dying has grow to be omnipresent there, and now, funeral prayers are held virtually daily within the hospital courtyard.
There’s doubtless nobody among the many greater than two million residents of Gaza who hasn’t been touched by dying ultimately. These on floor say they really feel dying has grow to be a continuing companion throughout their battle to outlive, a pervasive presence that has led some Palestinians to face their mortality by writing their wills.
These wills do not all the time take the standard type of a authorized doc meant to separate belongings. Some write their wills as poems whereas others write about their emotions towards dying, about their hopes and goals and supply recommendation to those that survive.
Yousef al-Qidra, a poet and educational researcher, informed CBC Information freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife that his will — a easy paragraph — was written in a second of panic after a close-by airstrike put him head to head with the potential for dying.
After the explosion, because the mud gathered round him, al-Qidra was confronted with the uncertainty of the second and anxious about whether or not he would dwell or die. It prompted him to succeed in for his telephone and frantically kind out a textual content message.
“After survival, the duty lies in rebuilding what has been torn down. To create new lives lit by the grins of youngsters, surrounded by the lights of affection and mercy,” he wrote.
“On this imaginative and prescient, I see myself shining as a toddler clinging to life for eternity.”
The phenomenon of war-time wills has grow to be so widespread in Gaza that it caught the eye of Hani Al Telfah, a writer presently in Turkey.
He and Reem Ghanayem, an editor primarily based in northern Israel, compiled 18 final wills and testaments in a guide revealed in Beirut beneath the Dar Al Maaref imprint. It’s presently being translated into English and is ready to be revealed in 2026 beneath Akoya, a U.Ok.-based publishing home.
“This guide is not only for studying, it is a guide for historical past,” mentioned Al Telfah. “It is vital for the phrases on this guide to remain alive.”
Three of the contributors to the guide and the household of 1 who died in December 2023 spoke to CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife concerning the moments that triggered them to jot down their wills, in addition to their ideas on dying, how they’ve confronted it and survived over the last yr of struggle.
A second of concern — Yousef al-Qidra
Sitting in his tent in Khan Younis, al-Qidra recollects the second of concern that impressed him to jot down his will. A constructing about 50 metres away from him had simply been bombed and he says he and dying had been residing a second “collectively.”
“Both he (dying) takes you, otherwise you delay it,” he informed CBC Information. “That is it, nothing extra.”
After survival, the duty lies in rebuilding what has been torn down. To create new lives lit by the grins of youngsters, surrounded by the lights of affection and mercy … On this imaginative and prescient, I see myself shining as a toddler clinging to life for eternity.– The need of Yousef al-Qidra
Because the mud billowed round him, invading his throat and lungs, al-Qidra says he reached for his telephone and commenced to jot down his will.
He says that whereas dying was current in that second, so too was his intuition for survival. Al-Qidra describes himself as somebody who’s “connected to life.” He says his fixed makes an attempt to outlive by many airstrikes and displacements, in addition to his need to jot down, are proof of that.
He says he feels some type of redemption at outrunning dying for this lengthy.
“So long as you might be respiratory, so long as you continue to exist on this earth, that is some type of victory,” al-Qidra mentioned.
In his will, the 41-year-old wrote that the strip was full of “final moments that consistently encompass us in every single place, beneath the skies of Gaza.” In these moments, he says, life’s classes grow to be clear and the shortness of life’s journey is known.
Yousef al-Qidra, a poet and educational researcher in Gaza, says he frantically wrote his will on his telephone after a close-by airstrike put him head to head with the potential for dying. In it, he asks that his organs be donated if they’re wanted — all besides his ‘tiring-tired coronary heart, which longs for relaxation.’
Al-Qidra’s will spoke to his legacy, suggesting his writings be given to the general public. He additionally requested that his reminiscence be met with a prayer that might carry him “serenity.”
Lastly, he requested for his organs to be donated in the event that they had been wanted — all besides his “tiring-tired coronary heart, which longs for relaxation.”
Mom and daughter — Ni’ma and Mayar Hassan
Ni’ma Hassan says writing her will a number of months after struggle broke out in Gaza was a approach to “show our presence.”
On the time, the 44-year-old mom of seven mentioned she thought the struggle would possibly finish rapidly, so her phrases had been nonetheless hopeful. However wanting again on the final yr, she says that even when the bombs stopped as we speak, a lot of that hope has been destroyed, alongside together with her actuality in Gaza.
She says her outlook on dying modified — dying turned a presence, looming over her. Different writers additionally mentioned they started to consider dying as an ominous presence fairly than a distant thought.
“You take care of it as if it is an actual individual in entrance of you, face-to-face,” Hassan mentioned. “You look dying within the eyes.”
Regardless of this, Hassan admits she’s scared to die. The previous Rafah resident says she’s been displaced 5 occasions, going between displacement centres, tents and typically the road in an effort to evade dying.
“We’re frightened of dying and we run away from it,” she mentioned.
Hassan is presently sheltering close to the Nasser Medical Advanced, the place she says “dying turned my companion on my route,” as household and pals mourn their family members within the courtyard of the hospital the place she typically walks.
Hassan says writing her will was a approach “to face dying” that has surrounded her daily. In it, she speaks of Gaza and the dying it has confronted.
“Gaza is bought in a field buried beneath the rubble,” she wrote, referencing dowry containers given to a bride on her marriage ceremony day. “The bride, nonetheless in her white robes, has misplaced her voice.”
Hassan writes that she feels dying her “as if ready for me to open up so it may well strike.”
I counsel you to dwell the life we are going to now not have.– The need of Ni’ma Hassan
“Gaza has became a dying snake,” she writes, and finally, will probably be her flip to face it.
Through the early days of the struggle, dad and mom had been writing their kids’s names on their legs and arms so their limbs could be extra simply identifiable in the event that they had been hit by an airstrike. Hassan makes word of the follow in her will and pleads with dying to spare her kids’s limbs.
And he or she expresses frustration that she’s unable to discover a protected place that might defend her kids from “imminent dying.”
Lastly, she leaves her readers with a chunk of recommendation: “I counsel you to dwell the life we are going to now not have.”
When her 12-year-old daughter, Mayar, confirmed an curiosity in writing, Hassan inspired her to jot down her personal will.
Mayar says it was her approach to really feel “sturdy” within the face of dying, and that within the final yr, she has grown wiser and older than her true age. However in her will, her hopes and goals are nonetheless that of a younger woman.
So, if our home is bombed, I don’t want anybody in search of me when my siblings and my mom die. I need to stick with them in life and in dying.– The need of Mayar Hassan
“I’m telling [death] to handle me, my dad and mom and all my family members,” she mentioned.
Mayar’s childhood fears can nonetheless be felt in her phrases — she’s frightened of being alone, each in life and in dying.
“So, if our home is bombed, I don’t want anybody in search of me when my siblings and my mom die,” she wrote. “I need to stick with them in life and in dying.”
In her will, Mayar additionally makes word of youngsters pressured to bear amputations in Gaza.
Within the occasion she suffers the identical destiny, she says she is going to search for her limb and preserve it together with her so she stays entire, even in dying, “and no a part of me is left to grieve.”
The viral poet — Refaat Alareer
The Palestinian poet and scholar Refaat Alareer died in December 2023 together with his siblings and their kids after an Israeli airstrike hit the house the place they had been sheltering.
Information of his dying went viral as pals, household and colleagues paid their respects by sharing his will on-line.
Alareer had posted the 20-line poem If I Should Die on his Instagram on Oct. 13, 2023. In it, he encourages readers to make use of his dying to “carry again love” to Gaza.
His mom, Imm Hani, says Alareer by no means informed her about what he wrote earlier than his sudden dying.
“I noticed it on-line,” she mentioned. “Even in Western international locations, they speak about him and his will.”
When introduced with a replica of her late son’s poem, Imm Hani fought again tears as she learn the traces a couple of baby in Gaza whose father left with out bidding him farewell.
Refaat Alareer, a poet from Gaza, was killed alongside members of his household in December 2023 by an Israeli airstrike that hit the house the place they had been sheltering. Alareer had posted a 20-line poem titled If I Should Die on his Instagram two months prior.
By means of her sobs, she remembered the day she came upon he had died alongside together with his siblings, nieces and nephews.
“Generally I neglect the martyrs … I maintain my telephone for a second, only a few seconds,” she mentioned. “I need to name him, however then I keep in mind.”
In the meantime, on the south facet of the Nasser Medical Advanced in Khan Younis, the cemetery has been expanded.
Earlier than Oct. 7, Ahmed Abu Hata, the undertaker who cares for the lifeless right here, says his busiest day would have seen him bury simply three or 4 folks. Now, he says he buries shut to fifteen or 20 folks a day.
Drained, he sits on the sting of one more grave he is ready, utilizing scraps of steel and rubble from destroyed buildings, because the dying toll continues to climb ever increased.
