Two orphaned teens got their seven siblings to Rafah; now they live in fear
Al Jazeera
Nagham and Mohammad lost their parents and are taking care of their siblings as fear of an Israeli attack ratchets up.
Deir el-Balah/Rafah, Gaza – In a little tent in Rafah, 15-year-old Nagham al-Yaziji and her brother Mohammad, 14, are holding down the fort as best they can, keeping house and caring for their seven younger siblings, the youngest of whom is six-month-old sister Toleen.
The children have lost both their parents over the past four months and had to bring their younger siblings south on their own, set up a tent, and struggle through every day as best they can.
Holding Toleen in his arms and bouncing her gently, Mohammad tells Al Jazeera about the day they lost their mother, Shouq al-Yazji, 37, in the first week of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“That day, my mother asked us to look after my little sister, Toleen, who was three months old at the time, because she was going to visit my grandfather nearby,” Mohammad recalls.
While Shouq was visiting her elderly parents, the house next door was bombed, killing everyone in it and in the surrounding houses. Her husband and children found out late that evening.
