Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip – For Samar and Abdullah Al-Farra, a Palestinian mother and a son, a semi-ruined house in the southern Gaza Strip is the only home they have.
It is also a grave.
Like thousands of families in the entire Gaza strip, the 38-year-old Samar and her 17-year-old son try to restore the remains of the relatives that are buried under rubble-a painful collective effort that has quickly gathered between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
Samar al-Farra (38) and son Abdullah (17) returned to their family site, where four of their youngest children remain buried under the rubble after Israeli air strikes.
(Bilal Shbair / for the time)
From their 13th family, Samar and Abdullah al-Trära were the only survivors of a trio of Israeli air raids that occur in their three-story house and near buildings in the city of Khan Yunis-which has been a way for a way to the camel for centuries Camel was caravan – near the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza.
It was December 14, 2023, a little more than two months after the Wild War, which broke out when the fighters led by Hamas injured the border fence of the Gaza and killed around 1,200 people in South Sala.
On the night of the strike a microcosm of one of the most fatal and most destructive bomb campaigns in the recent history, the Al-Farra siblings, which ranged from childhood up to 19 years at the age of 19, took protection together in the basement of the house. Together with her mother. Ten of them died there.
A separate explosion injured her 51-year-old father Sabri and a 21-year-old cousin, Mahmoud, who were caught outside on the street when they tried to look for relatives, according to family members.
In the past after the bombing, friends and neighbors helped the al-Farras, most of their dead people not all. All of these months later there are still four corpses: Dina, 11; Ali, 7; Yusra, 5; And Saber, a 2 -week -old boy.
In the consequences of the air raids, the chaos of the fight quickly called for the family's neighborhood, which had already been declared a closed military zone by the Israeli authorities. Samar, who has still recovered from the birth, and her surviving son soon joined a huge wave of shift, which almost all of the more than 2 million people would sweep from Gaza.
After months of life in a nearby tent camp, Samar and Abdullah recaptured their broken house at the end of last year. Since so many people were homeless, more than two dozen relatives have joined them since then and have been looking for the protection of the damaged building.
Samar knows that now the best she can hope for will be the later discovery of four small skeletal residues.
Back in her house, mother and son are haunted by what is located in the basement in the basement.
“We will only find scattered bones that are buried under the sand and rubble of this house,” she said bleak. “My home has become a cemetery where my children are buried.”
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The ceasefire, which became effective on the last whole day of bidding administration, is a fragile mechanism. For months in the creation, the initial phase is based on a complex series of protocols that the free of the dozens of the hostages, which were confiscated from Israel on October 7, 2023, in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The biggest issues are still unsolved: the terms for a permanent disturbance of the fights, the governance of Gaza Strip and how the destroyed area is rebuilt.
How weak, the agreement has offered the only break in a short -lived ceasefire in November 2023, less than six weeks after the start of the war.
At least at least fatal sniper roar no longer strike without warning. The thunder of the explosions has calmed down. The urgently needed humanitarian aid enters the enclave; An important border crossing was opened for medical evacuations. In the past few days, hundreds of thousands of people have made their way home to zones that were previously emptied by military order, including the entire north of Gaza Strip.
The remains of the Al-Farra House in Khan Yunis, Gaza, after it was hit in Israeli air raids in December 2023. Hamas' 7. October 2023, the attack in South Israel started the war in Gaza.
(Bilal Shbair / for the time)
The Palestinian officials have placed the number of fatalities in Gaza stripes in more than 47,000 without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. At least 10,000 corpses in ruins are completed on the territory, the Ministry of Health estimates.
After the fights are carried out, the al-Farras face a dilemma: even if they can somehow persuade the authorities to bring in heavy equipment to help from the cold in their search.
“If –If – We are lucky enough to get a bulldozer in the middle of this crisis of a lack of fuel and the lack of heavy machines could damage the house, ”said Samar. “We have two impossible decisions: call up the bones and lose our home or keep the house as it is, at least for winter.”
So you have had a kind of compromise: carefully with small tools and by hand, carefully on the rubble and carefully picking.
Abdullah uses his free time in a motorcycle repair shop -Friday, the Muslim prayer day -to dig. All day, he sigs sand and broken bricks and stops when dark: the batteries for LED lights are too scarce and expensive to continue working into the darkness.
With the armistice, there is at least a level of security in this task. As those who lived in the area.
In the spring of 2024, Abdullah spent three or four hours a day in the house, while the family was still driven out until a cruel discovery made the task too heavy.
A cousin called Abdullah al-Farra also survived the air raid in the three-story house. Since so many are homeless, more than two dozen members of the extended family of Al-Farras live in what is left of the house.
(Bilal Shbair / for the time)
He found a jawbone and recognized the teeth of his 18-year-old sister Najwa. He sobbing back to the family's tent.
“There were bones like gravel, spine,” he said. “I couldn't return for a whole week. I couldn't get foot near our house. ”
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Sometimes Samar and Abdullah remember how life in their family home was before the war. The lush garden with a traditional clay oven in which they baked bread. Large water tanks for washing carpets and bed linen. Family celebrations in the shadow of palm trees, with the waving smell of roasting lamb.
The house is still standing, but it is its own kind of skeleton: planning and quilts that connect the gaping holes, crumpled a corner of the building, the basement, in which the siblings were filled with concrete slabs, and collapsed masonry collapsed.
“Every time I look at the walls, I remember them,” said Abdullah about his dead siblings. “It breaks me.”
Finding the last corpses and the funeral in the family story in the local cemetery will bring a fresh broken mourning, said Samar – but also a level of relief.
“I'm waiting for the day when I can collect your remains and put it in the cemetery,” she said. “At least then I will have the low comfort to know that they are in one place.”
The remains of the Al Trära House. The siblings aged of infants up to 19 years of age collected together with their mother in the basement of the house. Ten of them died there.
(Bilal Shbair / for the time)
In today's neighborhood of Al-Farras, the last few days have triggered a mourning that has mixed with daily tasks. When their search continued, others also bury the bones of the relatives. An occasional shout signaled a dark new discovery. People were carefully seen how they load their finds in pockets and packages.
A family returned to Bombenkrater Straße who returned to their damaged house after the ceasefire. Someone had set up a coffee grinder powered by the generator; People stood with their beans. Young people played football in the nearby ruins.
If the ceasefire maintains the ceasefire, the task of cleaning up is enormous.
A claim assessment by the United Nations stated that the extinguishing of more than 50 tons could take two decades. Satellite images shows that at least two thirds of the structures of Gaza were damaged or destroyed.
But for this one family or what remains, the dead must first be calm.
“One night Abdullah came to me and said: 'Mom, I had a dream. I saw my brothers and sisters in simple, ”said Samar. “At that moment I knew that it wasn't just a dream. It was real. “
Special correspondent SHBAIR reported Khan Yunis and staff author King from Tel Aviv.