The Electronic Intifada 5 October 2024
Arafat al-Khawaja.
Qassem Allah al-Khawaja is still mourning the death of his diabetic brother Arafat, 38, a father of two boys and a girl.
Arafat died in Israeli detention and Qassem is convinced that he was tortured.
“His death has left a deep pain in our hearts and in the hearts of everyone who loved him,” Qassem said. Arafat was a “generous and kind person to everyone.”
Arafat, who used to make a living as a singer, needed regular treatment and insulin.
Indeed, on 7 October, Arafat was at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City getting treatment, but was forced to leave due to the sudden massive influx of wounded once Israel’s bombardment started.
“I took my brother to his home in Hamad City in Khan Yunis, an area designated by the occupation as a safe zone where residents of northern Gaza were ordered to relocate,” Qassem, 26, a sound engineer, told The Electronic Intifada.
“I thought I was protecting him from the bombings.”
But as Israel closed the crossings into Gaza for everything – “we are putting a complete siege on Gaza … No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” in the words of Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister – supplies of medicines dwindled and Arafat struggled to obtain insulin.
Then, in early February, the Israel military bombed a house next to Arafat’s, injuring both him and his mother.
“That day was one of the hardest of my life,” Qassem recalled. “I was speaking with my brother on the phone after many attempts to reach him due to the destruction of Gaza’s communication networks by the occupation. Suddenly, I heard the sound of an Israeli airstrike and then lost contact with my family.”
Arafat was transferred to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, and his family was displaced to the Haroun al-Rashid school in another part of the city.
Nasser hospital has suffered several Israeli attacks over the past year, however, and in January, the Israeli military besieged the area around the complex.
In mid-February, soldiers entered the grounds and, on 13 February, the army issued an evacuation order to everyone inside.
That day, Arafat was detained.
“The last message I received from him was a voice note asking me to send his greetings to our father and mother, saying that the occupation army had ordered him and other patients to go down to the ground floor and outside the hospital,” Qassem recalled.
Qassem had no contact with his brother after he was taken away. Then, on 1 September, the family learned that Arafat had died – apparently back in February, just a day or two after his detention, at Sde Tieman, the notorious army camp turned prison, which is at the center of torture and rape allegations against the Israeli military.
And Arafat’s brother is in no doubt what had occurred.
“Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, Arafat suffered from displacement and the severe shortage of medical supplies,” Qassem told The Electronic Intifada. “But Israel didn’t just torture him like they have everyone else in Gaza; they killed him through the severity of the torture after his capture.”
The family’s torment is not yet over either. Qassem said another brother, Ibrahim, had been detained from the Haroun al-Rashid school and that his whereabouts remain unknown.
Aseel Mousa is a journalist based in Gaza.
