Khalil Al-Hayya’s wife tells the story of how she lost 4 children and 5 grandchildren to occupation fire news

Mrs. Amal Al-Hayya – the wife of the head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza – is still patient, despite the loss of 4 of her children and 5 of her grandchildren, at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces, and she is left with only Izz al-Din, Tasnim, and Shaima, who refuse to leave the Gaza Strip.

In 2008, her son Hamza was martyred in an Israeli bombing, before the aggression caused her to lose her eldest son Osama again in 2014, when he was martyred along with his wife Hala and his three sons Khalil, Hamza and Amama, while his two sons Amal and Abdul Rahman survived, who was a child no more than three years old at the time and lives today with her in Qatar.

Her son Hammam was also martyred last year when Israel targeted a meeting of Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha. He was followed by his brother Azzam, who was martyred last Thursday in Gaza City, while their third brother, Izz al-Din, was seriously injured during the war and lost his two sons, Khalil and Muhammad.

Mrs. Amal Al-Hayya reveals that her sons, Hammam, Azzam, and Ezz Al-Din, were “triplets,” saying that two of them were martyred during the years of war, while the third survived with severe injuries after losing his leg and his two sons in the recent aggression.

She says that Izz al-Din is still living in Gaza despite his severe injury, while the suffering of his brother Azzam after his leg was amputated was one of the heaviest things to her heart, in light of the siege and the lack of the simplest painkillers and medications, which made her pray to God to choose martyrdom for him as a mercy out of pain.

The wife of the Hamas leader did not bid farewell to any of her martyred children, and said, “God gave her fortitude to the point that she thanked Him when her son Hammam was martyred, and prostrated in gratitude when Osama and Azzam were martyred.”

Umm Osama recalled the details of the bombing of her son Osama’s house during the 2014 war, explaining that the family was fasting during Ramadan at the time of the targeting, and that her granddaughter Umama was reciting Surat Al-Baqarah before the missile fell on the house.

She said that she was seriously injured and found herself under the rubble, before she discovered that Osama, his wife, and their three children had been killed, adding that she realized from the first moments that no one had survived the bombing.

“I hoped for their martyrdom, not their injury.”

Azzam Al-Hayya was previously seriously injured in 2022, but he insisted on returning to the Gaza Strip after receiving treatment in Turkey, according to his mother, who indicated that her children voted among themselves to choose who among them would go with her and her husband to the State of Qatar, and the choice fell on Hammam, who was martyred in the Doha attack.

Mrs. Amal says that Hammam did not leave Gaza easily. Rather, he cried a lot after he was forced to leave with his father following the lottery drawn by his brothers among them, because he believed that his stay outside the Gaza Strip deprived him of the “honor” of being alongside his family during the war.

According to his mother, Hammam was an imam of a mosque and a memorizer of the Holy Qur’an. He also refused to perform an “aqeeqah” for his newborn in Doha or show any signs of joy in solidarity with the people of Gaza. He even refrained from slaughtering the Eid sacrifice while the war was continuing in the Strip.

Mrs. Amal Al-Hayya said that she felt sad when she learned that her son Azzam was seriously injured because she feared he would suffer and wished him martyrdom, stressing that she had lost many of her family and sisters.

She added, “I have not seen him (Azzam), and I have not heard his voice since the beginning of the war except two weeks before his martyrdom when he called as if he was saying goodbye to us, because my children and grandchildren refuse to leave the Gaza Strip and suffer what the rest of the residents of the Gaza Strip suffer.”

Khalil Al-Hayya’s wife points out that her family did not know stability even before the war, due to continuous security threats and assassination attempts, explaining that they were constantly moving from one house to another, and avoided using phones or prolonged family meetings for fear of Israeli monitoring.

She added that they lived for many years near the border in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza, and Israeli tanks sometimes arrived at the doors of homes before family members could even leave or change their clothes.

Children of leaders in the field

Mrs. Amal Al-Hayya feels proud that she sacrificed her children for their country, and said that the children of leaders must advance the ranks and not lag behind their people as they resist the occupation.

In response to the accusations about the “welfare” of the children of Hamas leaders and their distance from the suffering of the people of Gaza, Mrs. Amal Al-Hayya stressed that the children of the leaders “should be in front of the soldiers, not behind them,” stressing that her children lived through the same conditions as the Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, of displacement, hunger, fear, and targeting.

She added that her children repeatedly refused to leave Gaza despite the availability of opportunities to do so, considering that what distinguishes the “steadfastness” of the Palestinians is their feeling that the leaders and their families are living the same fate and do not enjoy any exceptional privileges.

Umm Osama says that the Al-Hayya family provided 17 martyrs during the war and what preceded it, noting that her sister in turn lost two martyrs in the current war, while many of their relatives and the people of Gaza are still under the rubble.

She described Gaza as a “mass grave,” adding that her first wish immediately after the borders were opened was to return to the Gaza Strip to stand over the ruins of homes and say hello to the souls of the martyrs, recalling the words of her son Hammam who used to say to her in Doha: “When will the war end, I will crawl towards Gaza.”

The wife of the Hamas leader saluted all the residents of Gaza, who she said had “given a great deal, and faced difficulties that mountains could not bear, until they became a mole on the nation’s forehead,” calling for victory, the lifting of the siege, and relief from their anguish.