I felt the weight of the stones on my body but I was unable to move them. 
 My sister Buthaina and I were watching a video about studying at the university moments before the bombing. 
 I wanted to see them and kiss them, but my health condition did not allow me to stand on my feet. 
 Surviving and grieving father: I stayed with them all night, not believing that they were martyred

“They were all martyred... no one was left except your father,” is how the young woman Nour Al-Maqousi (17 years old) received the news of the martyrdom of all her family members except for her father, with all the pain, oppression and loss it entailed, which put her in a state of shock that left her tongue-tied for hours, and she did not wake up from the horror of it until she burst into tears.

The story/tragedy began when, on 3/19/2024, the Israeli occupation air force carried out a “ring of fire” - a description that Gazans have experienced a lot since the beginning of the war of extermination - on their area in the Nuseirat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, causing a horrific massacre in which 24 citizens were martyred and dozens were injured.

Nour told Al-Quds.com what happened that night, saying: “At 9:30 p.m., the occupation bombed our house and the houses of our neighbors. I remained under the rubble, screaming and calling for help until someone came to rescue me. I felt the weight of the stones on my body, but I was unable to move them. I tried repeatedly and gathered my strength until I was able to lift them, and then the rescue workers pulled me out.”

We agreed to complete our university studies together.

She added: "My sister Buthaniya was next to me, and my shoulder was close to hers. Moments before the bombing, we were watching a video about the university and her dreams of studying medicine. She was encouraging me to work hard and study seriously in high school, so that we could complete our university studies together."

Nour never imagined that the blood covering her body was her sister Buthaniya's blood, and she was unable to look at her blood-stained face mixed with dust, while she was under the rubble. She continued her story: "I started screaming at people to get my sister out, but they couldn't. They got me out after a quarter of an hour, and immediately transferred me alone in an ambulance to the hospital."

For more than two full hours, Nour was crying and screaming in the hospital corridors: “I want my mother... I want my sisters,” not knowing that all of them had been martyred, and she remained struggling alone with the pain in her body and heart.

She said: “I was injured in the head and the doctors stitched up the wound and performed several operations on my foot, which I still suffer from. They also put a plate on me, and I am still receiving treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.”

Regret and pain filled Nour's heart as she was unable to take a last look at her mother and siblings. She continued: "My health condition did not allow me to stand on my feet to say goodbye to them. I really wanted to see them and kiss them all... but thank God, and I do not object to God's will."

All in one grave and one headstone 

Regarding the most painful moments in Nour’s memory, she said: “When I went to visit them in the cemetery, they were all in one grave. I was planning to say many things to them... but I stood at their grave and did not utter a single word. I could not comprehend the reality of their departure, and I was overcome by silence, and my tears overcame me. When I returned to the hospital, I cried all night.”

Nour cries bitterly and says: “It is not right for them to die, and I cannot comprehend that they are gone and I will not see them again.”

Opposite Nour, sits her father, Tariq Al-Maqousi, another survivor of the massacre. He tells “I” and “Quds.com” the painful details he experienced when his family’s bodies were recovered: “The morgue was full of martyrs, so they had to put the bodies of my wife and children on the floor. I stayed next to them all night, unable to comprehend that they were gone.”

"Maybe one of them is alive" 

He added: "I sit next to them, and every moment I uncover their faces to make sure of them, then I cover them again and my mind refuses to believe it, then I do it again, and I tell myself, maybe one of them is alive, and so on until morning comes, and the moment of the final farewell comes in the cemetery."

He continued: "I did not believe it even when I put them in the grave. I uncovered their faces and saw them for the last time. They took me out by force and then I returned to the hospital to see Nour and then I fainted."

He was not aware that he had been injured in his head and spine. He said: “The doctors stitched my head wounds and removed the shrapnel. It turned out that I had a fracture in the first vertebra of my back. Thank God for everything.”