Palestinian grandfather, known around the world for his affection towards his granddaughter killed in Israeli bombing last year, was also killed in an Israeli air strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp on Monday.
Khaled Nabhan attracted international attention for his heartbreaking description of his three-year-old granddaughter Reem, referring to her as "the soul of my soul".
The airstrike which killed him on Monday took place near a cemetery in the refugee camp, where two others were killed, local media reported.
Video footage circulating online showed Palestinians and journalists gathered around his body, with his face appearing bloodied from the shelling.
In November 2023, he was captured in video footage holding onto his granddaughter’s lifeless body as he stroked her hair. Her five-year-old brother Tariq was also killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in south Gaza.
Following the killing of his granddaughter, he dedicated his life to helping others in the besieged enclave, from shedding light on the targeting of children, distributing aid, and making appeals to Egyptian authorities to allow children into the country for medical treatment.
He also regularly assisted orphans and amputee children in the enclave and fed stray cats.
The New Arab, Nabhan’s son, Ali Badwan, said the Israeli army is killing people from all walks of life.
"We belong to Allah [God] and to Him we return. The occupation has killed my children, many young and old people – every day in full view of the world," he said.
"No one speaks out about it, only denouncing and denouncing. The grandfather of my children’s spirit has now travelled to meet them in the gardens of paradise and bliss."
Nabhan was regularly seen wearing a thobe and a keffiyeh wrapped around his head. In several interviews following the killing of his grandchildren, he explained that he wore Tariq’s medal as a necklace and Reem’s earring as a pin on his clothing to remember them.
Online, many people mourned the loss of Nabhan, who exemplified the pain and dignity Palestinians in the besieged enclave have experienced in over a year of continued Israeli bombardments.
"Khaled Nabhan spent the last year of his life carrying the grief of his murdered loved ones while providing small comforts to children trying to survive unimaginable violence. He stayed committed in his charity and kindness towards others in the midst of a genocide," one person wrote.
"His embrace of his murdered granddaughter, Reem, gave us a painful and human image of the loss being inflicted on Palestinians early on. Every loss of a Palestinian brings pain, but Khaled’s death hurts a little more today. May he embrace Reem and Tariq in the gardens of paradise soon," US-based journalist Sana Saeed wrote on X.
"The man had an angelic presence to say the least. He smiled in the face of a genocide and went around hospitals and camps comforting people despite his own pain…the demonized turbaned Muslim man who was everything they said he couldn’t be. Kind. Loving. Righteous. Resilient. Too good for this world. Our hearts are broken," US-based scholar Dr.Omar Suleiman commented.
The killing of Nabhan comes as Israeli attacks took the lives of at least 54 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, health officials reported.
At least 16 of those killed were sheltering in a school in Khan Younis, while another 15 were killed in the Khalil Aweida school in north Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 44,976 Palestinians and wounded 106,759 others since 7 October 2023. The war on Gaza has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.
The UN on Monday reiterated that Gaza was facing an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”, adding that nearly 1.9 million people have been displaced multiple times and over 70 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed.
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