She Gave Birth to a Son as a New Hope, Then He Too Was Killed in Gaza
Fatima Nofal lost three sons in an Israeli attack in 2023, and Zaid's birth brought her a glimmer of light. On Monday, the 15-month-old boy also died in a new strike.
Fatima Nofal lost three sons in an Israeli attack in 2023, and Zaid's birth brought her a glimmer of light. On Monday, the 15-month-old boy also died in a new strike.
In a nighttime attack on Monday, August 3, 2026, 15-month-old Zaid Nofal was killed in Gaza. A projectile struck his family's home around 3 a.m., burying the boy under the rubble. His mother, 38-year-old Fatima Nofal, survived because she had moved to another spot minutes before the strike due to the unbearable heat, while Zaid remained sleeping by the window.
Despite being injured herself, Fatima stayed at the scene and called neighbors to search for her son. Zaid was pulled from the rubble and taken to the hospital, but he did not survive. His death has plunged the Nofal family back into unimaginable grief. In an Israeli attack on October 13, 2023, Fatima had already lost three sons: 16-year-old Amin, 11-year-old Hamza, and newborn Ahmed, who was only 22 days old.
Ten months after that tragedy, Fatima learned she was pregnant again. Zaid was born on April 16, 2025, and his arrival was welcomed by the family as a miracle. "Zaid's birth was the most significant event in our lives during the war. His arrival brought immense joy to the whole family; everyone celebrated him as a little miracle that came to brighten our lives after long months and nights of pain and tears," Fatima told Middle East Eye.
In the latest attack, her two daughters were also injured. The older one, Baraa, sustained minor injuries, while the younger, Lina, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. Fatima has not yet told her that Zaid was killed. "Fire burns in my chest, and I don't know who will put it out," the inconsolable mother said.
On the same day, Israeli forces carried out multiple attacks in the Gaza area. In the evening, a drone struck a car on Al-Rashid Street in the western part of the city, near a mosque in the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood. Two Palestinians were killed in that attack: Samir Zakaria Abu Dalal, who had already lost his only child in an earlier Israeli attack, and Mohammed Salem Ahmed Darwish. The bodies were so badly burned that they could not be identified at first.
Israeli artillery also shelled the eastern areas of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. According to UNICEF data, at least 260 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began, and Israeli attacks since October 2023 have claimed more than 73,000 Palestinian lives. On the day of Zaid's death, another attack claimed the life of 9-year-old Ratil al-Abadla.
On the same day, a senior Israeli political source told CBS News that Israel "will not deviate from its current stance" in Gaza. Fatima Nofal asserts that Palestinian civilians, especially women and children, are deliberately targeted in the attacks. After their shelter was destroyed in 2023, the family went through multiple displacements, and now they are left without Zaid, the child they believed would be their new beginning.
