Gaza Mother Widowed Twice, Two Children Killed in War — SkimNews
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- Nisreen Touman lost her first husband Sami, 35, and children Mahmoud, 5, and Laith, 2, on June 8, 2024, when their home in Nuseirat was struck during an Israeli military operation that Gaza's Health Ministry said killed 274 Palestinians and wounded 698 in a single day.
- The June 8, 2024 strike killed 18 members of Nisreen's husband's family, including her sister Sabreen, 36, her mother-in-law, and two of her husband's brothers and their children; Nisreen held her dead children in her arms for two hours before the ICRC evacuated the family.
- Four and a half months after the first losses, Nisreen married Mohammed, her late sister's widower, in what she described as a non-romantic union to help care for his four orphaned children, including a one-year-old.
- On July 8, 2025, Mohammed was killed in a strike near al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat while Nisreen was pregnant, leaving her widowed a second time and her sister's children orphaned of both parents.
- Four months after Mohammed's death, Nisreen gave birth to daughter Sidra, who turns one in October 2026; Nisreen now lives with Sidra at her family home in Gaza while her late sister's four children are cared for by their grandfather.
- Nisreen described the cascade of losses as feeling 'like I'm in an Indian film,' saying she now prefers to stay isolated, focus on Sidra, and avoid making new choices.
Why it matters: A single Gaza mother has been widowed twice and five children across two families have been orphaned — a trajectory the Gaza Health Ministry's figure of 274 killed and 698 wounded in the June 8, 2024 Nuseirat operation alone doesn't capture. Her second marriage, arranged to care for her late sister's children, ended in another strike eight months later.
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