Zayed was born after losing three sons, Israel did not let him live either

15-month-old Zayed Nofal was sleeping by the window in a small room in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip, Palestine. He had no blanket on him in the scorching heat. His mother kept him asleep with a light breeze coming through the window. At around 3 a.m., their house was suddenly reduced to rubble by an Israeli airstrike. Little Zayed died after being crushed under the rubble.
His 38-year-old mother, Fatima Nofal, stood a few feet away. She looked speechless, her body covered in blood and dust. People were screaming around her, and in front of her was the biggest nightmare of her life—she had lost her fourth son in an Israeli attack. Earlier, in 2023, her three sons had been killed in another attack.
Neighbors rushed to the rubble of the house. The house was partially rebuilt after the ceasefire was declared in October 2025. But that house was also destroyed again. “I still don’t understand what happened. I am still in deep shock and grief,” Fatima said.
“I woke up a few minutes before the attack. I went to sleep on the other side of the house because of the intense heat. And I left Zayed by the window so that he could get some air and sleep in peace.” She was also injured in the attack. But without thinking about her own treatment, she asked neighbors to look for her son under the rubble.
“The house was completely filled with bricks and stones. Everyone started removing the debris one by one,” she said. At one point, Zayed was pulled out from under the rubble. He was wrapped in a thin cloth and taken to the hospital, but he could not be saved.
She lost three sons in 2023-
Zayed’s death took Fatima back to that terrible day on October 13, 2023. An Israeli airstrike that day killed her three sons—16-year-old Amin, 11-year-old Hamza, and 22-day-old newborn Ahmed—and only Fatima and her two daughters survived the attack. They were also injured.
At the start of the war, she and her family fled the al-Bureij refugee camp near the border to al-Sawarha in the coastal region of al-Jawaida in search of safety.
“We thought we would be safe there,” Fatima said. “But we never imagined that where we went for safety, we would lose my three children and most of my husband’s family.” Their shelter was also destroyed in that attack. The family has been displaced repeatedly since then.
A glimmer of light in the darkness-
Like almost everyone else in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, Fatima’s life has been filled with uncertainty, displacement, and the pain of losing loved ones. About 10 months after losing her three sons, she learned that she was going to become a mother again. Later, she learned that she was having another son. This news brought new hope to her life. In the midst of the war, Zayed was born on April 16, 2025. Fatima believes that she came into this world to fill the void of the lost children.
“The happiest moment of our lives during the war was the birth of Zayed,” she says. His arrival brought joy back to the entire family. He was a miraculous blessing amidst the long tears and suffering.” Relatives wanted Fatima to be named after one of her three dead sons. But Fatima did not agree. “I wanted him to have his own name, to have his own life.”
Gradually, Zayed became the center of joy for the entire family. His two sisters in particular did not want to be without him for a moment. Fatima said, “When I would take him to the hospital for vaccinations or health checks, his two sisters would wait on the stairs. They couldn’t leave him alone for even a few hours.’
Fatima’s leg was burned in the attack. The eldest daughter, Bara, was slightly injured. The younger daughter, Lina, suffered a serious head injury and is still in hospital. Fatima said, ‘When I went to see Lina, she first asked about Zayed. But I couldn’t tell her the truth. I just told her that Zayed was fine, waiting for you.’ She said, ‘I don’t know how I will tell her the truth after I get out of hospital.’
The most painful thing is to think that Zayed’s childhood was never normal. Fatima said, “The day he died, he was very restless in the afternoon. He wanted to go outside. I said to his sisters, ‘Oh! I wish I could take him outside for a while.’ But there is no place left for the children to play.” “He spent his whole life indoors. His cousins ​​were also killed in Israeli attacks. So he didn’t have any playmates.”

Source: Middle East Eye