“I miss her a lot:” Gaza child sleeps on his mother’s grave everyday

Palestinian journalist Saleh Al-Jafarwi shared the heartbreaking story of a child in Gaza who sleeps every night on the grave of his martyred mother.

“I had a strange encounter today. A child entered the cemetery, and I followed him to see where he was going,” Saleh shared while recording himself.

To his shock, he found the child sleeping on a grave. Concerned, he approached the sleeping boy, named Zain Youssef Mhana who tearfully told him, “I want to sleep in my mom’s embrace.”

Zain's mother was killed in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp two months ago. 

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The child Zain Youssef Mhana lost his mother two months ago in Al-Nuseirat camp, and since then, he comes every day to sleep by her grave. pic.twitter.com/qmfVlzK5XJ

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) November 4, 2024

When Saleh asked the child if he was afraid of the Israeli bombings or the roaming dogs in the cemetery, the boy replied, “I am not afraid of anything. I come to her every night.”

“I miss her a lot,” the child told the journalist while sobbing.

He described life after his mother’s death as “not nice,” reflecting the profound trauma Palestinian children endure.

Left speechless by the child’s pain, Saleh Al-Jafarwi expressed his despair, stating, “What could I say to him?”

The overall Palestinian death toll since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza has reached at least 43,824 with more than 100,833 wounded. Thousands more remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.