Palestinian widow’s struggle to locate husband’s grave

Four-year-old Omar and his younger sister living with their mother Shuroq Zahdeh, 25, in the Palestinian town of Hebron are consistently enquiring about their father.

Their father Islam Zahdeh, 32, was killed in Israeli firing on the morning of May 19 at Al-Shuhada street in the old city of Hebron, a city in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem. His body was also taken away and buried at some unknown place.

"I am telling Omar and his three-year-old sister Ghada that their father is in heaven. But they cannot understand what this means. If they hear the sound of the opening of the door they rush and call their father," Shuroq told Anadolu Agency, while sharing her predicament.

Like Shuroq, many widows in Palestine are waiting to know the whereabouts of their husband's graves.

"All I want now is to retrieve and bury the dead body of my husband in a grave," she said.

The Israeli forces have refused to hand over the body of Islam to his relatives. Shuroq said it is very painful to live with the memory that she was not able to see the face of her husband or to perform last rites.

She recalls that in 2016 when she was pregnant the Israeli forces stormed their home and arrested Islam. Omar was born a few months later with a walking disability when Islam was still in prison.

"When my husband was released Omar was six months old. He did not believe that he has become a father," said Shuroq.

He tried his best for Omar to receive treatment so that he could walk normally.

"We used to visit the physiotherapy center three times weekly together, and he was doing his best to motivate Omar," she said.

The children wake up almost every night asking their mother whereabouts of their father and complain that they have not been taken out by their father on Friday mornings as was routine since 2016.

"My daughter Ghada put spoon and plate for her father, and wanting him to have food with her," said the mother.

MEMORIES LOST

Shuroq said she even does not have memories of her husband as the Israeli army took away phones when they raided the home after killing Islam.

She was browsing Facebook when she read the news about killing a Palestinian man, in the old city of Hebron near the graveyard. She recognized that he was her husband from his clothes.

The couple was still recuperating from the loss of their two-month-old son in January 2020. Islam had gone to the graveyard to offer prayers at the grave of his son.

"But now I think he had gone to meet his departed son," said the woman, who saw on TV Israeli forces ripping clothes of her husband after killing him.

"My children saw the video when he was bleeding on the ground, they know that the Israeli soldiers shot their father, but they are still waiting for him to back with candy as they used to," she said.

When Shuroq or her family bring any candy for Omar and Ghada, they refuse to take, unless told that their father has sent it.

"It is not easy to take care of two children alone and answering their innocent questions and explaining for them the whereabouts of their father. It is really hard," Shuroq added.