15 months of the war survived, then he died as the shooting was approaching

After more than a year of the Israeli bombing in Gaza, a few blessings remain for Maltal and Samar Al -Najjar for her account by the time when the ceasefire deal was agreed this month. Their house was in ruin, and they and their children were displaced, and they were wandering in hunger.

However, they promised themselves lucky: their seven -year -old families were healthy, which is grateful for him in the war between Israel and Hamas, who killed tens of thousands. A lot of rubble is likely to be discovered.

After that, with just hours until the Palestinian jeep’s nightmare was appointed for 15 months to stop, hit the disasters.

Their son, Omar Al -Najjar, rushed to his village in southern Gaza, in the hope that it would be the first house. Instead, it became one of the last life claimed before the start of the fragile armistice.

Mr. Al -Najjar, 49, told the New York Times in an interview after a funeral for his son.

It was not long after 8:30 am on January 19, when he thought of the mistake-that the ceasefire began, Omar Al-Najjar was killed alongside two of my cousins ​​in what the survivors said was an Israeli blow. The Israeli army denied that it attacked the area.

Their funeral was a modest relationship. A group of relatives sat in a circle of plastic chairs for prayer outside a donor camp from the grave tents and wooden huts on the outskirts of the southern city of Khan Yunis. This is where the Nagsar, like hundreds of other families, resorted to the Israeli bombing of his campaign against Hamas.

Throughout the war, which started in October 2023 after Hamas led an attack on Israel, the Israelis say about 1,200 people, more than 47,000 Palestinians who were killed, according to the health authorities in Ghazan. They do not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

On the night before the shooting, the Nagsar had mobilized property in their temporary tents. Mrs. Al -Najjar, 44, was keen to return to Khuza, her green agricultural village along the southern border in Gaza. She said that she wanted to see the remainder of their home, and visited herself to greet friends, relatives and neighbors with a joyful embrace.

But when they waited for sunrise, Mrs. Al -Najjar could not suppress the growing discomfort. Her son Omar, who left in the early hours of the morning, left behind his bag. “He told me: I have a feeling that I will not return,” I remember, then stormed the sighs.

The family knew that returning quickly to her home, less than one mile from the border with Israel, which will be withdrawn by tanks and Israeli forces, may be fraught with dangers.

But for many Ghazan, they are all familiar with periodic wars and the ends that end up, the initially initial hours of the armistice is very important: many race at home to protect all that has been saved in the war of deception who invalidate to extracting everything that can be sold From rubble – everything from reinforcing iron to kitchen tools.

Omar Al -Najjar’s brother, Ahmed, who survived the attack, said that the couple waited early on Sunday that the ceasefire would become in effect, along with two of their cousins, on the outskirts of Khuza, ready to enter at 8:30 am, a scheduled start The armistice.

Their father said: “They were hoping to save everything they could, such as cutting wood or any property.” The family can use materials to build shelter in their destroyed homes so that relief groups can provide them with tents.

As for Ghazan, Mr. Al-Najjar said, the end of the fighting was not the end of their fears: “It is another struggle-an internal battle to survive and rebuild everything we can.”

When the Najar brothers set out, Omar’s cousin photographed Amr on a motorcycle, wearing a red shirt, brown jacket and jeans.

“You will be the first person there!” His cousin shouted and laughs.

He answered with a smile, “I will repeat a martyr.”

For his parents, he was anxious.

Soon after his children left, Mr. Al -Najjar saw the news that the truce was late until 11:15 am in a state of panic, he and his wife tried repeatedly to contact the texts of their children and children. But the youth were in an area without reception-and they had no way to learn about the postponement of the ceasefire.

From the outskirts of Khuza, Omar Al -Najjar’s older brother Ahmed said, they listened and waited as the fighting continues until 8:20 and then calm. Soon after 8:30, they entered the city, and they encouraged the arrival of others.

Ahmed Al -Hajjar peel away from the group after he stumbled on the gas cylinder, he hoped for a little fuel.

He said, “Suddenly, I heard the sound of the missile.” A pile of rubble was diving while shook the Earth’s explosion around it. “When I looked up, I saw smoke rising from the place where they were standing,” he said. “I couldn’t see them – smoke only.”

He said that Mr. Najar escaped from the village in a tank, a drone and snipers fire, shocked and confused until he learned later that the truce had been late.

The Israeli army said it was “not aware of a strike” in the coordinates of the Najjar family.

Gaza emergency rescue services say that 10 Ghazan lost their lives between the time when the ceasefire was supposed to be useful and when that was already. Khuza residents say that the number that was killed in their village alone was 14.

Their parents said that none of the sons of the Najjar who killed, who ranged between 16 and 20, had relations with armed groups.

After a long period of strike, the relatives of Omar Najjar began searching for missing men. When one of them photographed himself wandering through the torn roads and knees in Khuza, he stumbled on the important body of a young man in a red shirt, brown jacket and jeans.

“Oh my God, have mercy on you, O Omar,” he can hear it while he was photographing the body. “May God have mercy on you.”

Mrs. Al -Najjar described her son as a kind of people who liked to be bothering and joke, and who are still as a developing man to her to make sweets.

More than a week after the ceasefire, his father is still struggling to find any consolation at the moment he was eager. Hope is one of the days when he imagined that the end of the fighting would bring him the opportunity to watch his son while he is building a future.

Mr. Al -Najjar said: “All I wanted is to see him fulfilling his dreams.” “Now, my son has gone, and our dreams with him.”