‘I am devastated’: Wife pens poignant letter to journalist husband killed in Gaza

By Press TV Staff Writer

In a poignant letter to her slain husband, Palestinian journalist and filmmaker Roshdi Sarraj, Shrouq Aila writes about the memories they had promised to create together. 

Proud parents of a daughter, who turned one after Sirraj was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, they shared a beautiful bond that almost seemed unbreakable. 

“She is far too young to be orphaned and I am far too young to be a widow," Aila writes in the widely-shared letter posted on her Facebook page. 

Sarraj was a young and promising journalist and filmmaker and founder of Ain Media, which provides media production services to journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip.

"Exactly one year ago today, you were holding my hand, comforting me during labor. Having you by my side made it so much easier," the bereaved wife writes to her husband.

"We chose the name Dania for our daughter, which means "close" in Arabic, so she would forever remain close to our hearts."

The letter was written on the first birthday of Dania, days after Sarraj's life was brutally cut short amid the Israeli regime's unchecked and indiscriminate aggression on Gaza.

Young Gaza poet and novelist, killed in Israeli strike, chronicled pain of her people

The 32-year-old Gazan poet and novelist, through her writings, portrayed the strong will of her people, their pain and grief, and their desire for a free and dignified life.

"Today marks her first birthday, and we had planned a grand celebration, envisioning the memories we would create for her," writes Aila, who is a researcher at a London-based university. 

"I am devastated by the idea of how she will remain "close" to Daddy's heart without remembering his face."

Sirraj was busy with his media engagements since October 7, chronicling the pain and plight of his people in the besieged strip. 

In his last post on X, formerly Twitter, dated October 20, he made an "urgent appeal to the international community" after the Palestinian Red Crescent Society received a threat from the Israeli regime to bombard the Al-Quds Hospital. 

"We call upon the international community to take immediate and urgent action to prevent another massacre similar to what occurred at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital," he wrote. 

In his last post on Facebook, dated October 14, Sirraj paid tribute to a friend and fellow journalist Ibraheem Lafi, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes days after the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation.

Sirraj and Ibraheem were close friends and the murder of Ibraheem on October 7 impacted him.

"He lived as a man and died as a man, his morals were the morals of men. I am saddened by his absence and saddened by his farewell," he wrote on Facebook hours after Ibraheem's death.

Humans of Gaza: Dana Al-Saqqa, lawyer; Tawfiq Al-Farra, dentist

Dana Al-Saqqa, a Gaza-based lawyer, and her dentist husband Tawfiq Al-Farra got married earlier this year. This week, they were killed in an Israeli airstrike along with their unborn child.

Little did Sirraj know that his fate would be the same as Lafi, with only days separating them.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7, when the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance launched the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation against the Zionist entity, has risen to more than 11,000, mostly children.

The Israeli regime has been indiscriminately bombarding the densely populated territory, targeting jampacked hospitals, schools, universities, and places of worship.

The regime has also targeted journalists and media offices in the besieged strip, with at least 50 Palestinian journalists being killed since October 7, according to Palestinian sources.

"Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict in the face of an Israeli ground assault on Gaza City, devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, and extensive power outages," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Monday

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