November 2023 — MHCE Newsletter
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WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 9<br />
The explosions terrified<br />
Majd, said his father,<br />
45-year-old Ramez Souri.<br />
He missed playing soccer<br />
with his school friends. He<br />
was devastated that the war<br />
had canceled his Christian<br />
family’s much-anticipated<br />
trip to Nazareth, the town in<br />
Israel where tradition says<br />
Jesus grew up.<br />
“Baba, where can we go?”<br />
Majd asked again and again<br />
when airstrikes roared. The<br />
family, devout members<br />
of Gaza’s tiny Christian<br />
community, finally had an<br />
answer <strong>—</strong> St. Porphyrius<br />
Greek Orthodox Church in<br />
Gaza City.<br />
Souri said Majd calmed<br />
down when they arrived at<br />
the church, where dozens<br />
of Christian families had<br />
taken shelter. Together, they<br />
prayed and sang.<br />
Palestinian refugee<br />
agency, could barely speak<br />
Wednesday as he knelt<br />
over his children’s small<br />
shrouded bodies at the<br />
hospital. Gone were his<br />
daughters, 5-year-old Joud<br />
and 10-year-old Tasnim.<br />
Also gone were his twin<br />
18-month-old sons, Kenan<br />
and Neman. Al-Sharif<br />
sobbed as he hugged Kenan<br />
and said goodbye. Neman’s<br />
body was still lost beneath<br />
the rubble of the six-story<br />
tower where the family<br />
had sought refuge in the<br />
Nuseirat refugee camp, in<br />
central Gaza.<br />
“They had no time here,”<br />
Sami Abu Sultan, al-<br />
Sharif’s brother, said of the<br />
baby boys, a day after the<br />
building was destroyed. “It<br />
was God’s will.”<br />
MAHMOUD DAHDOUH,<br />
16<br />
On Oct. 25, Al Jazeera’s<br />
livestream caught the<br />
chilling moment when its<br />
Gaza bureau chief, Wael<br />
Dahdouh, discovered that<br />
an Israeli airstrike had<br />
killed his wife, 6-year-old<br />
daughter, infant grandson<br />
and 16-year-old son,<br />
Mahmoud.<br />
Swarmed by TV cameras<br />
at the hospital, Dahdouh<br />
wept over his teenage son,<br />
murmuring, “You wanted to<br />
be a journalist.”<br />
Mahmoud was a senior<br />
at the secular American<br />
International High School in<br />
Gaza City. Set on becoming<br />
an English-language<br />
reporter, he spent his time<br />
honing camera skills and<br />
posting amateur reporting<br />
clips on YouTube, Dahdouh<br />
said.<br />
A video that Mahmoud<br />
filmed days before he died<br />
showed charred cars, dark<br />
smoke and flattened homes.<br />
He and his sister, Kholoud,<br />
took turns delivering a<br />
monologue, straining to be<br />
heard over the wind.<br />
“This is the fiercest and<br />
most violent war we have<br />
lived in Gaza,” Mahmoud<br />
said, chopping the air with<br />
his hands.<br />
At the end of the clip, the<br />
siblings stared straight into<br />
the camera.<br />
“Help us to stay alive,” they<br />
said in unison.<br />
On Oct. 20, shrapnel crashed<br />
into the monastery, killing<br />
18 people. Among the dead<br />
were Majd and his siblings,<br />
9-year-old Julie and 15-yearold<br />
Soheil. Israel says it<br />
had been targeting a nearby<br />
Hamas command center.<br />
Majd was found beneath<br />
the rubble with his hands<br />
around his mother’s neck.<br />
His face was completely<br />
burned.<br />
“My children just wanted<br />
peace and stability,” said<br />
Souri, his voice cracking.<br />
“All I cared about was that<br />
they were happy.”<br />
KENAN AND NEMAN<br />
AL-SHARIF, 18 months<br />
Karam al-Sharif, an<br />
employee with the U.N.