The Electronic Intifada 22 July 2024
People inspect the damage inflicted by Israeli attacks on an UNRWA building complex in Gaza City, 12 July. (Hadi Daoud / APA Images)
My dear neighbor Abu Khader al-Safadi was likely the oldest person in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood. He was over 90. He was born sometime in the 1930s and lived his entire life in al-Tuffah.
He was a kind man who ran a small grocery store for much of his life.
Everyone, young and old, knew him. He would sit in a chair in front of his house, smiling at passersby and chatting to neighbors.
Abu Khader was a living history book. When he told stories about the past, it was like he was history itself. He told stories about how Gaza used to be and how its residents once lived.
He told me about the railway that used to pass through Gaza from Egypt, of which traces remain, and about a café in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Daraj, where travelers from the Levant would stop on their way to the Arabian Peninsula, hauling dates and other fruit.
He spoke English and Turkish and he shared with me all sorts of folk songs and wedding traditions and customs. He would tell the children stories that encouraged bravery and good manners.
Abu Khader had survived several strokes, but he always emerged stronger. This is not to mention all the wars, massacres and tragedies he survived.
“I will never leave my house”
On 7 October, Abu Khader refused to leave his home.
Amid Israel’s killing and destruction, nearly everyone else in al-Tuffah was forced to leave to survive. Yet when asked why he remained, he responded: “I will never leave my house; dying in it is better than displacement.”
Then came the dreadful day of 8 July, when al-Tuffah was surrounded by a ring of fire. Israel dropped leaflets from planes telling us to go to southern Gaza. Everyone was rushing around in panic and fear.
As Israel bombarded the area, Abu Khader again refused to flee.
The coming days revealed Israel’s near-total destruction of the area.
I haven’t yet returned to al-Tuffah, but I’ve seen images on social media of the destruction wreaked by Israel. I was shocked. I barely recognized my neighborhood. I heard from another neighbor that Abu Khader was gone, now a martyr in the Israeli attacks on al-Tuffah.
My beloved neighbor is survived by more than a hundred children and grandchildren.
I will remember him sitting in his chair, his face shining with light and looking up at the sky.
May God have mercy on you, Abu Khader. You are a symbol of strength and resilience, and you are now in the eternal gardens.
You are gone but your memory remains.
Zaher al-Torok taught math for 34 years and is now retired.
