What should have been a joyful Eid al-Fitr turned into unspeakable tragedy for Duaa Al-Sayyifi, a mother of four from Gaza, who awoke from a coma to learn that three of her children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Despite her own critical injuries, she survived to tell the world: “My children are not numbers.”
On that day, Duaa had taken her children to visit her sister at a UN school shelter. Moments after laughter filled the schoolyard, an airstrike flattened it. Duaa lost Retal (13), Noor Al-Haq (10), and Osama (4), along with her sister and three nieces. “Seven gone in a second,” she said. “I was with them and couldn’t protect them.”
Initially declared dead, Duaa defied the odds. Her face disfigured, her jaw shattered, and her voice silenced for weeks, she fought to live. Now, despite needing reconstructive surgery and treatment abroad, she speaks with clarity and grief: “Anyone who knew me knew I lived for them. I survived to tell their story.”
She still remembers their final words — Noor whispering she might be martyred, Osama dreaming of heaven, Retal hoping the next Eid would be better. “Gaza’s children are not statistics,” Duaa says. “They are dreams, love, and the soul of our homeland.”
Source : Safa News
