Martyr Date: 12/16/2023

Nahida: 70 years old

Samar: 49 years old

Nahida was the mother of the largest Catholic family in the Gaza Strip. She had a total of 7 children, including Samar, and 20 grandchildren.

Samar worked as a cook for the physically and mentally disabled children who were being cared for by the Teresan nuns of the Missionaries of Charity.

Nahida was born in 1953 in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Her family were forced to flee to Yemen when the Zionist entity invaded Lebanon in 1982, and she eventually managed her way back to her homeland -Gaza, Palestine- where she dedicated herself to voluntary work for the local Catholic community.

On the morning of December 16, 2023, a Zionist entity tank targeted and struck the Missionaries of Charity convent which housed 54 disabled people. The shelling caused a large explosion- destroying the church’s electricity generator. A barrage of two shells followed, rendering the hospice uninhabitable and forcing the residents to be displaced.

Around noon, Edward Anton, Samar’s brother who worked with Doctors Without Borders, thought he had observed the Israeli military outside the church and shouted warnings to those sheltering in the building to stay inside.

According to Edward, Nahida, his mother, was shot while crossing the courtyard to go use the bathroom; Nahida was shot three times, one in her stomach. When Samar heard this, she ran out and tried to help her mother, or at least, move her to a safer place. Samar was then met with shots right to her head and under her ear.

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-dilemma-of-gazas-christians