‘The world’s silence and complicity gave my family only shrouds’
Yousef Aljamal, the Gaza coordinator at the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), says his sister and her family were killed in an Israeli attack on their apartment in Gaza last week.
His 14-year-old niece, Noor, was the only survivor of the attack that killed her mother, father, and two sisters, Aljamal wrote in an online post.
He said a fight between the children the night before saved Noor’s life.
“She usually sleeps next to her sister, Hoor. They were very close growing up. They played together, went to school together, and went to their favourite ice cream shop together their whole lives. On the night of the air strike, however, the sisters had a small argument, and Noor decided to sleep closer to the curtain in the room where their family slept. While the family slept, an Israeli missile targeted their room, killing everyone except Noor,” he wrote.
“Noor’s body flew through the air with her mattress and hit the bathroom wall. She survived with multiple fractures in her arm,” he said.
Aljamal said the world is allowing “this genocide to happen” in Gaza.
“My family would have preferred to celebrate the lives of their loved ones rather than just their memories,” he wrote. “Instead, the world’s silence and complicity gave my family only shrouds and no graves of their own.”
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is an organisation guided by Quaker beliefs, which provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and advocates for divestment to support Palestinian rights.
Israel killed my sister and her family
On grief and being the only survivor in your family in Gazahttps://t.co/1O0OAvUZKz
— Yousef Aljamal 🪁 (@YousefAljamal) August 11, 2025
Palestinians live in crowded tents, destroyed buildings in Gaza City
Burnt-out tents can be seen among the makeshift shelters
Families are also living in partially destroyed buildings next to the tents
Three aid seekers among four Palestinians killed in central, northern Gaza
Our colleagues on the ground are reporting several deadly Israeli attacks.
Near central Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, Israeli forces shot at and killed at least three people seeking aid, while injuring others, our colleagues quoted a source at al-Awda Hospital as saying.
Meanwhile, in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood, an Israeli attack killed another person, they added.
