Earlier than the warfare in Gaza, the Nasser Medical Advanced in Khan Younis was a recurrently functioning hospital. Sufferers would are available and their illnesses could be dealt with by health-care workers. However within the final 12 months, demise has change into omnipresent there, and now, funeral prayers are held virtually daily within the hospital courtyard.
There’s seemingly nobody among the many greater than two million residents of Gaza who hasn’t been touched by demise indirectly. These on floor say they really feel demise has change into 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 at all times 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 demise, about their hopes and goals and supply recommendation to those that survive.
Yousef al-Qidra, a poet and educational researcher, advised 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 opportunity of demise.
After the explosion, because the mud gathered round him, al-Qidra was confronted with the uncertainty of the second and apprehensive about whether or not he would reside or die. It brought on him to succeed in for his telephone and frantically sort 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 kids, surrounded by the lights of affection and mercy,” he wrote.
“On this imaginative and prescient, I see myself shining as a baby clinging to life for eternity.”
The phenomenon of war-time wills has change into so widespread in Gaza that it caught the eye of Hani Al Telfah, a writer at present in Turkey.
He and Reem Ghanayem, an editor based mostly in northern Israel, compiled 18 final wills and testaments in a guide revealed in Beirut underneath the Dar Al Maaref imprint. It’s at present being translated into English and is ready to be revealed in 2026 underneath Akoya, a U.Okay.-based publishing home.
“This guide is not only for studying, it is a guide for historical past,” stated 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 put in writing their wills, in addition to their ideas on demise, how they’ve confronted it and survived over the last 12 months of warfare.
A second of worry — Yousef al-Qidra
Sitting in his tent in Khan Younis, al-Qidra remembers the second of worry that impressed him to put in writing his will. A constructing about 50 metres away from him had simply been bombed and he says he and demise have been residing a second “collectively.”
“Both he (demise) takes you, otherwise you delay it,” he advised 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 kids, surrounded by the lights of affection and mercy … On this imaginative and prescient, I see myself shining as a baby 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 started to put in writing his will.
He says that whereas demise 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 way of many airstrikes and displacements, in addition to his need to put in writing, are proof of that.
He says he feels some type of redemption at outrunning demise for this lengthy.
“So long as you’re respiration, so long as you continue to exist on this earth, that is some type of victory,” al-Qidra stated.
In his will, the 41-year-old wrote that the strip was full of “final moments that continually encompass us in all places, underneath the skies of Gaza.” In these moments, he says, life’s classes change into 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 opportunity of demise. 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 will carry him “serenity.”
Lastly, he requested for his organs to be donated in the event that they have 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 warfare broke out in Gaza was a method to “show our presence.”
On the time, the 44-year-old mom of seven stated she thought the warfare may finish shortly, so her phrases have been nonetheless hopeful. However trying again on the final 12 months, she says that even when the bombs stopped in the present day, a lot of that hope has been destroyed, alongside together with her actuality in Gaza.
She says her outlook on demise modified — demise turned a presence, looming over her. Different writers additionally stated they started to think about demise as an ominous presence quite than a distant thought.
“You cope with it as if it is an actual individual in entrance of you, face-to-face,” Hassan stated. “You look demise within the eyes.”
Regardless of this, Hassan admits she’s scared to die. The previous Rafah resident says she’s been displaced 5 instances, going between displacement centres, tents and generally the road in an effort to evade demise.
“We’re frightened of demise and we run away from it,” she stated.
Hassan is at present sheltering close to the Nasser Medical Advanced, the place she says “demise turned my companion on my route,” as household and associates mourn their family members within the courtyard of the hospital the place she typically walks.
Hassan says writing her will was a manner “to face demise” that has surrounded her daily. In it, she speaks of Gaza and the demise it has confronted.
“Gaza is bought in a field buried underneath the rubble,” she wrote, referencing dowry packing 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 demise taking a look at her “as if ready for me to open up so it may possibly strike.”
I counsel you to reside the life we are going to not have.– The need of Ni’ma Hassan
“Gaza has was a demise snake,” she writes, and ultimately, it will likely be her flip to face it.
In the course of the early days of the warfare, dad and mom have been writing their youngsters’s names on their legs and arms so their limbs could be extra simply identifiable in the event that they have been hit by an airstrike. Hassan makes be aware of the follow in her will and pleads with demise to spare her youngsters’s limbs.
And she or he expresses frustration that she’s unable to discover a secure place that will defend her youngsters from “imminent demise.”
Lastly, she leaves her readers with a bit of recommendation: “I counsel you to reside the life we are going to not have.”
When her 12-year-old daughter, Mayar, confirmed an curiosity in writing, Hassan inspired her to put in writing her personal will.
Mayar says it was her method to really feel “robust” within the face of demise, and that within the final 12 months, 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 are not looking for anybody in search of me when my siblings and my mom die. I need to stick with them in life and in demise.– The need of Mayar Hassan
“I’m telling [death] to maintain me, my dad and mom and all my family members,” she stated.
Mayar’s childhood fears can nonetheless be felt in her phrases — she’s frightened of being alone, each in life and in demise.
“So, if our home is bombed, I are not looking for anybody in search of me when my siblings and my mom die,” she wrote. “I need to stick with them in life and in demise.”
In her will, Mayar additionally makes be aware of kids pressured to bear amputations in Gaza.
Within the occasion she suffers the identical destiny, she says she’s going to search for her limb and hold it together with her so she stays complete, even in demise, “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 youngsters after an Israeli airstrike hit the house the place they have been sheltering.
Information of his demise went viral as associates, 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 demise to “carry again love” to Gaza.
His mom, Imm Hani, says Alareer by no means advised her about what he wrote earlier than his sudden demise.
“I noticed it on-line,” she stated. “Even in Western nations, they discuss him and his will.”
When offered with a duplicate of her late son’s poem, Imm Hani fought again tears as she learn the strains a few little one 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 have been sheltering. Alareer had posted a 20-line poem titled If I Should Die on his Instagram two months prior.
Via her sobs, she remembered the day she discovered he had died alongside together with his siblings, nieces and nephews.
“Generally I overlook the martyrs … I maintain my telephone for a second, just some seconds,” she stated. “I need to name him, however then I bear in mind.”
In the meantime, on the south aspect 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 individuals. Now, he says he buries shut to fifteen or 20 individuals a day.
Drained, he sits on the sting of yet one more grave he is ready, utilizing scraps of metallic and rubble from destroyed buildings, because the demise toll continues to climb ever greater.
