Gaza – Madleen Khalla – SafaIn a land exhausted by thirst and burdened by tragedy and suffering as a result of the Israeli war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, water in the east of Gaza City is no longer just a resource for life, but has turned into a daily line of contact between survival and death.There, where the besieged agricultural areas stretch, Mahmoud and Eid Abu Warda used to walk every morning towards their work, carrying water to the displaced people via trucks belonging to the “UNICEF” organization, unaware that their last journey would be watered with their blood.The two brothers come from a simple family in the northern Gaza Strip. They took it upon themselves to transport water from the entrance of Mansoura in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza to displaced people in shelters, in light of the collapse of infrastructure and disruption of supply networks.As the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip intensified, their work became more dangerous, but in their view it was a duty that could not be postponed, because for the people there, water is not a luxury, but a matter of life.Painful detailsOn the morning of Friday, April 17, they went out as usual, driving the water tanker through dangerous dirt roads. It was not the first time they had ventured into exposed areas, but the military escalation made every move calculated.As they approached their destination, an Israeli army bullet targeted Mahmoud and threw him to the ground. Then Muhammad rushed to save his brother and was hit by an explosive bullet in his arm. The third brother, Eid, rushed to save his two brothers and was hit by another bullet and fell as a martyr, turning the water truck into a silent witness to a new crime.Mohammed Abu Warda told Safa News Agency the details of what happened that day, saying: “I looked towards the east and saw an Israeli tank. I started to withdraw and shouted to my brother Eid to come back, but he rushed to rescue Mahmoud, so he was injured and fell next to him.”He adds, “A passerby carried me to the hospital, and then my two brothers were brought in as martyrs,” noting that they were targeted several times despite their well-known and daily work.He continues, “We work with UNICEF, and we go to the station three times a day to fill up the water and distribute it to the displaced people. Just a week ago, we were shot at, and the tanks were hit.”deliberate targetingMohammed, who is recovering from his injury and a metal fixation in his shoulder, emphasizes that the occupation deliberately targeted them in an attempt to prevent water from reaching the displaced people, which exacerbates their suffering with the scarcity of water.He adds, “People contacted my family and came to the hospital and found Mahmoud in the morgue refrigerator and Eid in the operating room undergoing rescue attempts, while I had a breathing machine connected to me in a sight that neither my mother nor my father expected.”He continues, “Mahmoud was the closest to my family. He never missed a visit for any reason, even though we worked late into the evening. He would always visit them, and his martyrdom and that of my brother Eid was a shock to them.”Abu Warda confirms that his family ruled out any danger to his two brothers because their work was humanitarian and under the umbrella of an international organization, but the occupation did not take all of this into account.
Mahmoud Abu Warda, Gaza, War of Extermination , Crime, Eid Abu Warda
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