Humans of Gaza: 9-year-old Mayar and 6-year-old Bilal, inseparable siblings

By Humaira Ahad

Mayar wanted to become a journalist like her father. She wanted to tell the untold and unheard stories of her people to the outside world. She wanted to be the voice of the voiceless.

Her dream didn’t come true. The 9-year-old girl, instead of covering the news, became the news herself. The news of the killing of Mayar and her little brother Bilal was broken by their father.

It was the most difficult news Nidal Hamida, their journalist father, covered in his decades of journalism career. He didn't let grief come in the way of discharging his professional duties.

Darling of her parents, 9-year-old Mayar was the closest confidant of her brother Bilal.

She was a few years older than Bilal, but the siblings shared a beautiful bond. They were inseparable, in both life and death. An Israeli airstrike cut short their young lives together.

The girl with an infectious smile was killed with her little brother and mother in an Israeli airstrike on their home in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 23.

The father was not at home at the time. He was busy covering the war for Palestine TV.

Mayar excelled in her studies and had big dreams for her future. She wanted to show Gaza and the plight of her people to the world.

From a young age, the 9-year-old had learned the art of storytelling and being forthright from her journalist father as she grew up watching him cover the news every single day.

Bilal, on the other hand, appeared to be reserved, most of the time clinging to his sister whom he loved dearly. The siblings would always be seen together - playing, studying, walking hand in hand.

The grief-stricken father, who had pinned high hopes on his children, was forced by the occupation to lower their lifeless bodies into a grave, bidding them farewell with a heavy heart and teary eyes.

Reporters Without Borders has described Gaza as the “cemetery of journalists.” However, for journalists reporting from Gaza, the tragedy extends to their entire families, including children.

Mohammed Abu Hatab, a journalist working with Palestine TV, was killed with his family as Israel bombed his home in Gaza’s Khan Younis, in the south of the territory, on November 3.

Palestine TV said that the deliberate Israeli attacks on reporters “is a bloody message to terrorize Palestinian journalists,” intended to stop them from “conveying the suffering of the Palestinian people and exposing the crimes of the occupation”.

In late October, the family of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic bureau chief in Gaza, was killed in an Israeli air raid. The images of their funeral became viral on social media.

Journalists and their families in Gaza have also been receiving threatening calls from the Israeli military and spies, warning them of unwanted repercussions for laying bare the regime’s crimes.

“Another threat by occupation to not go to Gaza City,” Motaz Azaiza, a prominent Gaza journalist, wrote on his Instagram handle while sharing the recording of a phone call on November 24.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk