Abu Yahya returned after two years of absence, two springs of anguish, waiting, searching and praying, and the house became a place of mourning for a martyr.
“Thank God I found my husband. I accept your congratulations on his martyrdom today,” wrote Asmaa, the wife of the martyr Salama Al-Arouqi, after she was able to identify him among the bodies of the martyrs released by the occupation.
“I recognized him by his clothes, and I was content with seeing part of his body. I thank God that He honored me by allowing me to bid farewell to his pure body and that he has a martyr’s grave,” Asmaa told Safa News Agency.
“I am not saying that I am strong and standing firm, no, I collapsed and my being fell when I learned that he was with the bodies of the martyrs.”
She adds, “For two years and nights I was burning with the bitterness of longing, separation and loss. I never ruled out his ascension, but when I saw him, it was as if I had never expected his departure before.”
Longing for reunion and the agony of loss
The wife of Al-Arouq, “Abu Yahya,” recognized him on Wednesday, when she received a call from his family informing her that he was among the group of martyrs’ bodies handed over by the occupation army.
She says, “That day I was at my friend’s house, comforting her after she identified her husband’s body.”
“As I was comforting her, I was overcome by a strange feeling, and I felt something close to me, and I wished that God would honor me with his return, even as a martyr, so that the fire in my heart would lessen,” she describes the moments before the news.
The wife of Al-Arouq returned to her home and opened her phone, and went back to searching through the pictures of the martyrs’ bodies on the link designated for their families, and before she finished the search, her phone rang, “We have found Abu Yahya.”
She describes that moment: “I wanted to fly to the hospital with my eyesight intact. I controlled myself and ran, and when I arrived, I was satisfied with seeing part of his body. I recognized him from his clothes. I cried, thanked God, and collapsed. All the conflicting emotions overwhelmed me.”
His participation is the dignity of martyrdom
But she adds, “No, it’s not easy, but Abu Yahya deserves it. He is a hero and the crown on my head. He is our martyr, and to share in the honors of his martyrdom, I have prepared a day for those congratulating him on this martyrdom.”
After bidding him farewell and burying his body, well-wishers flocked to that wife, attesting to her husband’s testimony and that God had blessed her by bringing him into existence.
The martyr Al-Arouqi is one of dozens of martyrs whose bodies arrived in Gaza, two years after they went missing, without anyone knowing their fate.
Despite the feeling of “loss, affliction, and struggling with grief, the pride in her husband’s selection alleviates Asmaa a little,” and she promises him with her words “that she will be the best shepherd for their children, Naoum, Yahya, and Elena.”
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