“Our home was obliterated by an Israeli bomb. I miraculously survived being buried under the rubble, but the tragedy claimed the lives of my dear son and five loved ones”
Date of Testimony: 28/12/2024
I am Sunia Atwa Hussein Abu Tima (Abu Isaaq), a resident of Bani Suheila, East Khan Yunis. I am married to Bassam Shaaban Ahmed Abu Tima, 44, and I am the mother of seven children: Nibal (22 years old), Adham (20 years old), Malak (18 years old), Rahaf (15 years old), Rimas (14 years old), and Zain (8 years old). We live in a one-story concrete house covering 80 square meters.
On the evening of Monday, December 4, 2023, around 6:00 PM, I began to hear consecutive explosions and continuous artillery shelling around our area. At around 9:00 PM, my brothers and their families came to my house. They included Mahrous (31 years old), his wife Fatima Bassem Al-Shawaf (22 years old, pregnant in her 3rd trimester), and their son Sakher (3 years old). Also present were Fares (32 years old), his wife Dalaal Anwar Abed Abu Rujila (29 years old), and their daughters Wateen (1 year and 8 months) and Mennat ‘Allah (4 years old). Dalaal’s siblings, ‘Anas (14 years old) and Ahmed (27 years old), were also with them. Additionally, Jihan Jihad Al-Breem (34 years old), the wife of my brother Fawzi, was there along with her children: Alma (8 years old), Tala (4 years old), Ayham (3 years old), Elin (6 years old), and Aya (10 years old), who is the daughter of my brother Fawzi from another wife.
They arrived barefoot, terrified, and informed me that an Israeli drone had bombed the house of my brother Fawzi (38 years old), and they were going to stay at my place until the morning. They planned to leave once the carpet bombing stopped, and they decided to leave the entire neighbourhood once the situation calmed down.
I laid out bedding for them, and they spread out across the two rooms, with some sitting in the living room. We stayed awake throughout the night, terrified of the non-stop explosions, artillery shelling, and gunfire.
At around 6:00 AM on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, I looked out of the northern window and saw only white dust. My son Adham went out to the eastern street, and my brother-in-law ‘Alaa from the adjacent house called out to him, warning him that tanks were stationed in Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed Street, 200 meters south of our house, so Adham returned.
About ten minutes later, we were shocked to see tanks and bulldozers passing through the eastern street next to our house, encircling us from the north and west. We saw from the windows that the bulldozers began to raze the area around us to the north and west. During the night, the Israeli bulldozers had razed the municipal waste dump site of Bani Suheila and set up a military site there, installing tents without us hearing anything. I don’t know how.
Around 9:00 AM, a tank fired a small artillery shell westward toward my brother-in-law Muhammad’s (42 years old) house. (The house was empty because Muhammad and his family had fled to Rafah two days earlier.) The window glass shattered, injuring Aya and Alma with broken glass.
At that point, Ahmed Abu Rujila took the handle of a broom and tied a white cloth from a curtain to it, suggesting that we go out holding the white flag, but the overwhelming fear prevented us from doing so. We gathered in the southwestern room, where Anas Abu Rujila lay on a bed, and Jihan placed her son Ayham on another bed to sleep. Dalaal, Fares’ wife, went to the living room with her daughter Wateen and her brother Ahmed, while my son Adham and my daughter Rimas were in the northern room. Meanwhile, the bulldozers continued demolishing the Al-Breem* family cemetery, covering an area of one dunam, as well as electricity and phone poles, and starting to clear the yard from the eastern side of our house. The bulldozer was approaching the house.
Around noon, at 12:00 PM, my son Adham and daughter Rimas rushed out of the northern room toward the door shouting, “Help, help, they’ve destroyed the house!” I also saw Dalaal and her brother Ahmed running toward the door. Anas and Ayham were both in bed in the southwestern room. I noticed the walls of the room starting to crack, so I grabbed my daughters and crawled toward the southern window. Jihan ran toward her son Aiham to pick him up, but the ceiling collapsed on him and on us. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I found myself trapped between the ceiling and the floor, with Ayham trapped between the ceiling and my feet.
My daughters Rahaf and Malak were behind me inside the room, unable to escape. Jihan’s lower body was trapped under the collapsed ceiling, and Alma was trapped in the bathroom, which has been destroyed, and she was unable to get out. I looked around and saw that Anas was completely trapped under the rubble. I called out to him, “Anas, Anas,” but he did not respond, and I realized that he had passed away. I turned to Malak and told her to move and get out, but she said she was stuck and couldn’t move.
My brothers Fares and Mahrous were also trapped, part of them stuck between our house and my brother-in-law Alaa’ house in the street. Aya was near the street between some debris, and Mahrous called for her to get out, but she couldn’t. He then told her to go to the soldiers and inform them that there were children and injured people in the house. She went out, returned, and told him there was no one else. Five minutes later, Mahrous managed to free himself from under the rubble and checked on everyone. He found my daughter Nibal and assumed she had been martyred. However, when Nibal heard him, trapped under the rubble, she grabbed his foot, and he screamed, “She’s alive!” He removed some of the rubble so she could breathe. Mahrous then climbed onto the roof, and about ten minutes later, he came back and told us that the Israeli soldiers had executed my son Adham. He began helping his wife and children, including Sakher, Mennat Allah, Elin, and Aya, to get out from under the ceiling.
Mahrous went back to the roof and, after another five minutes, Fares freed himself from the rubble and told Aya to inform Mahrous that he was alive. Mahrous responded, “Don’t come out until I tell the Israeli army.” Mahrous returned and removed Fares’ shirt, and at that point, Jihan screamed, “Get me out, get me out!” They managed to free part of her. I then asked them to remove Ayham’s body from under my feet, which Mahrous did, placing him on the collapsed roof. Fares went to his wife Dalaal, who was also trapped on the eastern side of the house.
Five minutes later, I heard Mahrous shouting at Fares, “Come out, or the soldiers will shoot you!” Fares left his wife and went toward the soldiers. Mahrous then came back and took his wife, son Sakher, and the children to safety, but said to me, “I’m sorry, I can’t get you and Jihan out.” Ten minutes later, my daughter Rimas, who had been under the rubble, managed to escape.
Nibal then told her to bring something to break the rocks, and Nibal brought a scoop, spoons, and a knife, but they were useless. Rimas then returned with a hammer and began breaking the stones around Jihan, as we couldn’t leave unless Jihan was freed first. We finally managed to get Jihan out, but she couldn’t feel her lower limbs. I, along with my daughters Rimas, Nibal, and Malak, made it out, and Rimas went to her aunt Dalaal. I followed her and took Wateen, my nephew’s daughter, who had passed away, and placed her on the destroyed roof. We then freed Dalaal and her brother Ahmed from under the rubble. His leg was broken, and we helped them crawl to my brother-in-law ‘s house. We entered Ahmed into the house.
I saw soldiers stationed on the roof of Tamer’s house, about 20 meters to the west. From Alaa’s house, I took some shirts and underwear, and we went back to Jihan. I heard Alma calling out, “Get me out, get me out,” but I didn’t know where she was. I asked Jihan to come with us, but she refused, saying she wouldn’t leave. “My daughter Alma is in the bathroom, calling for me.”
By 5:00 PM, we were on our way, raising white clothes as a flag. Nibal went west toward Tamer’s house where the soldiers were stationed, screamed at them, and returned to us. We then headed east, but after walking a few meters, we didn’t know where to go. My daughter Rimas called her father, asking him for directions, and he guided us to exit from the northern side, at our neighbor Abu Salem’s house, the same path that Rahaf and the others took.
After walking 20 meters, we saw a tank on the road, its cannon aimed at us. We stopped, raised our hands holding the white cloth, and a soldier on the tank waved us toward Abu Salem’s house. Nibal was injured in her left shoulder and couldn’t lift her right foot. Rimas and Malak had injuries to their hands. We continued walking with difficulty until we reached the Al-Alam roundabout in Bani Suheila, where we told the young men what had happened, and they took us to Nasser Medical Complex.
The following day, we left the hospital and fled to Seham School (A) across from the hospital. After 20 days, we fled to Rafah due to the advancing Israeli forces, which were getting closer to the shelters in Khan Younis. On April 18, 2024, my brother-in-law Alaa found the lower part of my son Adham’s body 50 meters northeast of our house, and after a burial at the European Hospital in eastern Khan Younis, we returned to Bani Suheila on April 23, 2024.
A month later, we found the upper remains of Adham near our neighbor Jihad Al-Breem’s house. I recognized him by his shirt and skull bones. Nibal confirmed that the remains belonged to her brother when she saw his teeth, as Adham had two prominent front teeth. Six people were martyred after the demotion and bombing of my house:
The victims include my son, Adham Bassam Shaaban Abu Tima (20 years old), my brother Fawzi’s wife, Jihan Jihad Mohammed Al-Breem (24 years old), and her children—Alma Fawzi Atwa Abu Ishaq (8 years old), Ayham (3 years old), and my brother’s daughter, Wateen Fares Atwa Abu Ishaq (20 months old). Additionally, my relative, Anas Anwar Abed Abu Rujila (14 years old), was also among those killed.
