Selah’s Story: A Gaza Mother Holding On

Selah, a mother of eight, tried to hold her family together through war, displacement, and fear. Despite the harsh life inside their tent, she did her best to hide her fears so they would never reach her children’s hearts.

She says:

“I tried to keep them busy thinking about food: what to cook, how to prepare it, and how to find it. I was content despite everything, as long as they were safe.”

But in a single moment, everything changed.

A rocket struck the tent where the family was sheltering.

Selah was severely injured in her leg and head, and two of her daughters were wounded as well. But the deepest pain of all was the death of her six-year-old son, Karim.

“I had eight children… now they are seven.”

She pauses for a moment before continuing:

“Karim left us with his beautiful smile. His toys are still waiting for him to this day… He left a deep wound in my heart.”

Since her injury, Selah has not been able to move or care for her children the way she once did. She has undergone several complex surgeries on her leg and still lives with pain and difficulty moving, all while trying to stay strong for her injured children.

Selah says:

“Losing my child broke my heart… How could it not, when they are my whole life? And my injury has kept me from being the mother I used to be, doing everything for my children like before.”

Despite it all, Selah asks very little of life.

“All I want from this world… is for my son to come back to me, to run and play around me, and to give me the love that kept my heart going.”

Read about FAJR’s medical evacuations from Gaza and the MedEvac program, or see FAJR’s evacuation cases.