Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan’s harrowing story should shame Israel

Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan had just collected the birth certificates of his three-day-old twins when he received the news: his Gaza apartment had been bombed by Israel, killing the babies and their mother.

Footage of a distraught Abu al-Qumsan, weeping and falling as he still holds the birth certificates, has been widely circulated on social media. His heartbreak has become the latest emblem of the devastating toll of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

Israel’s relentless bombing

With tears streaming down his face, he said:

I was in the hospital at the time when the house was targeted.

There was a call, after the birth certificates were printed.

The caller asked, ‘Are you okay and where are you?’ I told them I was at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and I was told that my house had been bombed.

Abu al-Qumsan had left his wife, their babies, and his mother-in-law in the fifth-floor flat they shared in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. The area has been relentlessly bombed by Israeli forces.

He continued:

I was informed that they are in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and I told them I am at the entrance to the hospital.

I went inside the hospital with the birth certificates in my hands… and they told me they are in the morgue.

Their father Mohamed Abu al-Qumsan had gone to get their birth certificates. When he returned, he found his wife and the twins killed by an Israeli missile that struck their home. The ink on their birth certificates is barely dry and now he has to process their death certificates https://t.co/r0pt5iIUwy

— inqilāb (@tastefullysaucy) August 13, 2024

Now, with his home obliterated and his famliy gone, Abu al-Qumsan stood in a humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi holding unused pink and yellow baby clothes. He never got the chance to show his wife that their babies had been legally named: Aser, the boy, and Aysal, the girl:

On the same day I obtained their birth certificates, I also had to submit their death certificates, for my children, and also for their mother.

I did not get the chance to celebrate their arrival. Their clothes are new, they did not wear them.

He also held some nappies, explaining that they had spent three months trying to find some to buy, so scarce are basic supplies.

One social media user expressed their horror and grief at this callous murder:

With his pregnant wife, they endured 10 months of genocide, starvation, disease, & constant displacement. They finally met their babies, he had only known and held them for 3 days before Israel took them and his wife away from him. Can you imagine this level of grief? https://t.co/x1o1qyhLr8

— inqilāb (@tastefullysaucy) August 13, 2024

‘Living in terror’

Abu al-Qumsan married his wife Jumana, a pharmacist, in July last year, before the war plunged their lives into chaos. She endured a traumatic pregnancy as they fled from place to place to escape the bombardments. Despite carrying twins, she insisted on volunteering in hospitals until her seventh month. Her husband said:

Since the beginning of the war, I have been afraid every day, living in terror, and I was afraid that she would miscarry.

We lost friends, family, and people who were very dear to us,

We were in a lot of pain, we were very scared. We ran a lot.

I want to know why she was killed in this way. I want to know why she was targeted. In the house, in a safe area.

Like many Palestinian civillians that Isreal keeps murdering, Abu al-Qumsan said:

There was no prior warning of the bombing of the house. I have nothing to do with military action. We are civilians.

People in Palestine are evidently trapped, travelling from place to place as Israel indiscriminately bombs safe zones. How could these days-old babies killing possibly be justified? And their mother, one of the very few remaining medical professionals? And their father, now losing his entire world?

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Guardian News