‘Little guest’: How a rescued baby brought two Gaza families together | Israel-Palestine conflict

Jabalia, Gaza – Between the arms of his father and the household who cared for him throughout his disappearance, little Mohammed performs fortunately.

About 16 months in the past, a 13-month-old Mohammed sat crying beside his mom’s lifeless physique, surrounded by the lifeless and wounded, after an assault on the college the household was sheltering in.

That day, amid the chaos and worry as displaced households fled, he disappeared.

His father, Tareq Abu Jabal, spent greater than a yr on the lookout for Mohammed whereas, unbeknownst to him, one other man from the college was on the lookout for Tareq.

‘Just a little visitor’

Rasem Nabhan and his household have been additionally displaced and sheltering in al-Rafei Faculty in Jabalia in northern Gaza when two Israeli bombs hit it in late December 2023.

“We have been terrified, the youngsters have been screaming,” the 41-year-old stated. “Moments later, quadcopters appeared, broadcasting orders for everybody to evacuate instantly. There was gunfire all over the place.”

Rasem centered on getting his spouse and 7 kids out of the college with the opposite ladies and kids, then ran to assist extinguish the flames nonetheless burning within the bombed lecture rooms. They wanted to test if anybody was left alive.

“Blood coated the partitions. … Physique components have been scattered on the ground among the many wounded and the lifeless. It was past phrases,” Rasem stated.

Amid the carnage, he stated, “I noticed a child crying and screaming. Subsequent to him lay the physique of a girl – her head and abdomen torn aside, her physique coated in blood. I believe she was his mom.”

He picked up the kid and ran, not pondering. “The child’s face was purple, and he may barely breathe, he was crying so laborious.”

“I saved asking individuals round me: ‘Are you aware this little one? His mom was killed.’ However nobody did,” he recounted. “It was unattainable. … It felt just like the Day of Judgement, everybody fleeing, clutching their kids.”

Tanks had surrounded the college by then, he stated, forcing everybody to stroll south. Rasem walked with the child in his arms till he reached his spouse, who was ready for him by the street with their kids.

“I handed the kid to my spouse and instructed her I’d discovered him on the faculty together with his lifeless mom,” he stated.

Fawakeh Nabhan, Rasem’s 34-year-old spouse, took the child as her older daughters clamoured to be allowed to carry him.

“For a second, the worry light as we welcomed this little visitor,” she stated. “He had probably the most lovely face, and I felt an prompt connection.”

They nicknamed the child Hamoud, the diminutive for Mohammed and Ahmed, two common names, and took him alongside as they walked south in direction of Rashid Avenue, passing by means of the Israeli military’s Netzarim checkpoint.

They took turns carrying the child – Rasem, Fawakeh and their two older daughters, 19-year-old Islam and 18-year-old Amina.

“He would go to sleep and get up in our arms, like every other little one, unaware of what was happening round him,” Fawakeh stated.

Rising connected

The household didn’t know the way previous the child was, however they guessed he was seven to 9 months previous, based mostly on his measurement and weight.

“We’d by no means seen him on the faculty earlier than and had no thought [about] his actual age or when he was born,” Fawakeh added.

The household walked to central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, resting there some time earlier than persevering with to Khan Younis within the south, the place that they had heard there have been spots accessible at one other school-turned-shelter.

“Regardless of the dangers, I felt a college was higher than dwelling in a tent. Not less than we might have a concrete roof over our heads,” Fawakeh stated.

The story of their displacements is lengthy and sophisticated as a result of they moved from faculty to displacement camp to sleeping tough again to a tent for months.

Via all of it, Rasem and Fawakeh noticed the child as a supply of heat and pleasure.

“At first, he was withdrawn and silent, by no means laughing, irrespective of how a lot we tried. For practically 50 days, he was like that – as if he have been looking for his mom and questioning who we have been,” Rasem recalled. “However over time, he began to open up. He grew connected to us, and we to him.”

All through their displacement, Fawakeh, with Islam and Amina, cared for the child. However when it got here to feeding him, Fawakeh insisted on doing it herself.

However caring for a child as Israel wages its genocidal warfare on Gaza is a big monetary pressure as a result of formulation, diapers and nutritious meals are both not accessible or are exorbitantly priced.

“After we arrived within the south, we purchased formulation and a pacifier, however he refused. I believe he was breastfed by his mom,” Fawakeh stated. “In a means, that was a reduction as a result of formulation was costly. As an alternative, I fed him lentils, beans, rice. He ate no matter we ate.”

“He liked bananas a lot. We may solely afford two – one for him and one for my four-year-old son, Abdullah.”

Diapers needed to be rationed as their value skyrocketed, reaching 10 shekels a diaper (about $2.70).

“I might put one diaper on him at evening, and in the course of the day, I used cotton cloths that I modified ceaselessly,” Fawakeh defined.

Blessings

Because the household moved round, the child grew to become well-known and adored, bringing blessings to the household, Rasem stated.

Hamoud didn’t seem like the Nabhans, and other people would ask Rasem and Fawakeh about him. Once they heard his story, their hearts would soften, and they’d bathe the little boy with no matter small presents they may discover.

“Our neighbours within the camp would ship us plates of meals only for him,” Fawakeh stated with fun. “They might say, ‘Make certain he eats this.’”

“He calls my husband Baba and me Mama. He sleeps in my lap, runs straight to me when he wants consolation,” Fawakeh stated, reducing her voice as she glanced at her youngest son.

“Abdullah, my four-year-old, would get so jealous and cry every time I gave the child an excessive amount of consideration.”

Total, the couple’s kids – Mohammed, 20; Islam, 19; Amina, 18; Maryam, 12; Nour el-Huda, 10; Mustafa, 9; and Abdallah, 4 – embraced the child as one in every of their very own.

Regardless of quite a few affords from organisations, orphan sponsorship programmes and even different households keen to undertake the child, Rasem refused.

“He’s my eighth little one. I like him deeply, and I refused the thought of somebody taking him from me,” Rasem stated.

“My reply was at all times agency: The one means I might ever let him go is that if I discovered his actual household.”

Then, in a hushed voice, he confessed: “However in my coronary heart, I prayed I wouldn’t discover them. I finished looking out. We had turn out to be too connected.”

A father’s search

As Rasem spoke, Mohammed’s father Tareq, 35, sat close by listening, smiling at his youngest son.

The daddy of three – Omar, 14; Tolay, 9; and Mohammed, now 26 months – had by no means stopped on the lookout for his lacking little one.

“On the day al-Rafei Faculty was bombed, my spouse and three kids have been inside our classroom,” Tareq recalled. “I used to be within the schoolyard when the air strike hit. I ran, screaming, in direction of them.”

The Israeli military had shelled each al-Rafei and the college subsequent door. “In that strike, my spouse, my nephew and 6 others have been killed – eight lives misplaced right away,” he stated.

“Once I reached our classroom, I noticed Omar and Tolay, each injured. Omar had shrapnel in his again, and my daughter had been struck within the abdomen. Then I noticed my spouse. … Her physique was torn aside.”

His voice faltered. “I collapsed. However by some means, I pressured myself to assist evacuate her physique with the others.”

His spouse, Iman Abu Jabal, was 33. Tolay carried shrapnel in her abdomen for 3 months.

“Grief, worry for my wounded kids, the screams, the push to evacuate, the military’s drones circling overhead,” Tareq recounted. “Within the panic, I didn’t take Mohammed with me after I carried his siblings out.”

When he went again for Mohammed, he couldn’t discover him. The child was gone.

“I began asking everybody,” he stated. “Some instructed me he had been killed. Others stated somebody took him. The tales saved altering.”

“I used to be devastated. I searched by means of the crowds, however everybody was working, screaming, grabbing their kids and fleeing,” he added.

He was not capable of finding his child.

He went again into the college with a couple of others to bury the victims of the bombing.

“We wrapped my spouse’s physique in a sheet and waited for 3 hours in a classroom, unable to go outdoors to the yard to bury her,” Tareq recalled.

“The shelling and gunfire have been relentless, however I wished to bury my spouse, it doesn’t matter what.”

Amongst those that remained on the faculty was a surgeon who handled the wounded, together with Tareq’s kids, as greatest he may.

“My nephew was bleeding closely. A younger man helped him depart the college and stroll to al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, however he arrived in essential situation and handed away there.”

Tareq and the youngsters spent the evening within the faculty with the others who had stayed to bury their family members. Within the morning, they snuck out by means of a niche within the faculty’s partitions, taking detours to achieve his brother’s home in western Jabalia.

After dropping the older children off, Tareq spent the remainder of the day looking out the hospitals in Jabalia for Mohammed, then on the numerous spots the place displaced individuals had gathered.

“I used to be instructed a household had taken him to the south whereas others hadn’t seen or heard something about him.”

However Tareq additionally needed to deal with his different kids, traumatised by seeing their mom die and in want of meals, medication and care.

By the tip of February 2024, northern Gaza was within the grips of famine, so Tareq determined to maneuver south to save lots of the youngsters from the extreme starvation sweeping the area.

As quickly as he arrived in Rafah, Tareq resumed his seek for Mohammed.

“I began asking kinfolk, acquaintances and neighbours who have been with us within the faculty we had fled from, however I discovered no hint of him,” he continued. “I spent days like this till I misplaced all hope and turned to God.”

“I used to be seeing individuals fleeing, leaving their kids behind within the bombings and evacuations. I noticed kids misplaced and crying. … It made me take into consideration my little one.”

Reuniting

On January 27, when displaced households have been allowed to return to northern Gaza, the Abu Jabals and the Nabhans walked again to Jabalia.

“By 8am, my kids and I have been standing on the rubble of our dwelling in Jabalia,” Tareq instructed Al Jazeera. “We had set out at 4am – we couldn’t wait any longer.”

Rasem and Fawakeh’s household headed out a bit later, and alongside the best way, they have been stopped for an interview.

“I talked about my pleasure to be going again. Then the journalist requested me concerning the child, pondering he was my son and the way he had grown up within the south,” Rasem recalled.

“I instructed her he wasn’t my son and defined his story. She was so moved, she made a plea on air for anybody to establish the kid’s household,” Rasem added.

The household ultimately obtained to Rasem’s dad and mom’ dwelling in Jabalia, not too far, as they’d discover out later, from Hamoud’s “actual” household.

The following morning, Tareq got here throughout the video from the TV interview.

“His options hadn’t modified though he had grown a bit. I began shouting out throughout the rubble: ‘My son’s alive! My son Mohammed is alive!’

“My brother, his spouse, the household and neighbours rushed over, asking what was unsuitable.

“All of us watched the video collectively. Rasem’s face was acquainted as a result of we’d been sheltering on the similar faculty.”

Asking round, Tareq discovered the place Rasem’s household was staying and rushed over.

“Me, my kids and brother went over, and I launched myself to Rasem, who recognised me instantly.

“Mohammed didn’t recognise me and cried,” he stated, smiling in gratitude anyway.

The Nabhans have been conflicted, glad that Hamoud, who they now knew was named Mohammed, had discovered his household however unhappy that he was leaving.

“It felt like I used to be gifting away a chunk of my soul,” Rasem stated. “The toughest second was once they left, and Hamoud was calling me, crying, ‘Baba, Baba!’”

“I spent the evening crying from the disappointment over Hamoud’s departure,” Fawakeh stated, her eyes brimming with tears.

“My daughters cried for a complete week. The home felt like a wake. Hamoud had turn out to be part of us,” Fawakeh added as she held the visiting Mohammed, who nonetheless calls her Mama, shut.

“I instructed my husband and Tareq that Hamoud ought to come see us usually. He’s like our son, and he’s very connected to me.

“Fortunately, they stay close by, and my kids at all times go to carry him over, so he can spend time with us. He brings us such pleasure,” she beamed.

Watching the Nabhans taking part in together with his son, Tareq smiled. “I’m so grateful to them, from the underside of my coronary heart. They raised him as if he have been their very own. … He was with a household who confirmed him the love and care of the mom he misplaced.

“However as you possibly can see, when Mohammed sees Rasem, his spouse and their household, he fully forgets about me,” Tareq stated.

“He loves them a lot.”