Iman Abu Nada

The sweetest one, her aunt's beloved. She was the first grandchild, who filled the house with her laughter, her beauty, and her conversation, which sometimes seemed older than her years. She would stand in front of the mirror, admiring herself and her distinctive curly hair, saying, "I'm pretty and my hair is so pretty!" Like other children, at five years old, she was afraid of the sounds of war and would start crying and screaming, looking for a nearby hug to fall into. At night, she refused to sleep alone for fear of a sudden bombing. During the war, displacement happens frequently, and the family had to split into two groups to flee the bombing. On the night of November 2nd, Iman's family woke up to the sound of a bombing next to them. Her aunt continues, "As we were fleeing the house, my brother was carrying Ammouna, who was hit by shrapnel from the shelling. We didn't realize anything; we didn't hear a cry or a moan, and we didn't want to believe that she had been killed!" Two days before she was killed, Iman told her aunt about her fear of the war and how much she hated the bombing. Her aunt adds, "When I asked her why, she put her hand on the very spot where the shrapnel would later hit and said, 'Because they shot me here!'" Iman, the cheerful child, deserved a beautiful childhood, just as all the children of Gaza deserve, but the occupation killed her and destroyed her childhood.