SAFA — For 15 years, Ramzi Abu Rida lived behind Israeli prison walls. For most of that time, Sumaya Abu Rida waited for the day they could finally begin the life together that imprisonment had denied them.

Israeli forces detained Ramzi on June 27, 2006, in Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. He was about 20 years old and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

About two years after his detention, Sumaya, his cousin, agreed to marry him and began a wait that would last for more than a decade.

Their relationship unfolded through the restrictions of Israeli imprisonment. Visits were infrequent, and Sumaya later recalled seeing Ramzi only around 20 times during his years behind bars. During one visit, they sat separated by a glass barrier and spoke by telephone for just 45 minutes.

Outside prison, however, Sumaya was already preparing for the life they hoped to share. She and the family prepared their future home and made arrangements for their wedding while Ramzi remained behind bars.

On June 27, 2022, exactly 15 years after his detention, Ramzi was released and returned to Gaza. Sumaya was there waiting for him, and their wedding was planned for just days after his release.

After years in which their future existed largely as a promise, they could finally build a life together.

That life lasted only four years.

On September 4, 2026, Ramzi was killed in an Israeli strike in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. Palestinian reports said he was targeted while on his way to perform Friday prayers.

His killing brought an abrupt end to a story shaped first by imprisonment and then by a brief period of freedom.

For years, Sumaya waited for Ramzi to walk out of an Israeli prison so they could finally share the home and future they had imagined. She waited more than a decade for that beginning, only for their life together to be cut short four years later.

Ramzi spent 15 years waiting for freedom. Sumaya spent years waiting for him. They were finally given four years together before an Israeli strike separated them again.