A Palestinian Sanitation Worker Is Shot Dead by an Israeli Sniper for Daring to Go Up on His Roof -
A toddler is kneeling on sand scattered on the roof of his building. He's two years and five months old and has no idea what he's kneeling on. His grandparents turn their gaze away – the sight is overwhelming for them. Little Iyas is kneeling on the blood of his father, which hasn't yet been fully absorbed into the sand. This is where Saed Abu Alawiya, a sanitation worker of 32, had collapsed three days earlier. His wife Aya, 24, was in the final days of her pregnancy when he was shot to death on the roof of their home. The family threw the sand on the concrete floor there the next day to cover up the bloodstains, but now Iyas is perched on it, carelessly sifting it between his fingers.
A fan dangles from the ceiling of the living room in the apartment, its cable threatening to snap at any moment. There is an unpleasant odor of food hanging in the air; a stark, moldy wall; and a dull neon light that barely illuminates the furniture in the room. The two apartments owned by the Abu Alawiya family are in a building in the western neighborhood of the Nur Shams refugee camp, adjacent to the city of Tul Karm in the West Bank. During the past six months the Israel Defense Forces have continually raided the city's two camps, Nur Shams and Tul Karm, destroying, arresting, killing.
The bereaved parents are sitting on the tattered sofa, their expressions bleak. Fadwa is 63, her husband Nazmi is 64; the agony etched on his face is even more intense than hers. When we visited the family three days after the rooftop killing, which took place on April 5, the atmosphere was grim and oppressive – and Aya, the widow, wasn't there: She had given birth the day before, via C-section, to a son. He was named Saed for the father he will never know. The new mother was still recovering in Tabeth Tabeth Hospital in Tul Karm, where her husband died. We're sitting in the home of the bereaved grandparents on the first floor; Saed's apartment is on the second floor. Fadwa and Nazmi have five other children; Saed was the eldest.
Sayed Abu Alawiya's brother Mohammed, with their parents last week.Credit: Alex Levac
Iyas skitters about and sucks on an empty bottle. For the past seven years, his father had worked in the sanitation department of the Tul Karm Municipality. He left every morning at 5 A.M. and returned around 10 A.M., after sweeping the city's streets. His monthly wage was 2,500 shekels (roughly $700), which also supported his parents. Saed attended school until eighth grade, when he dropped out and began to work at odd jobs. His father has been unemployed for many years, after having been an occasional day laborer. On Friday, two weeks ago, their already harsh and destitute lives deteriorated further, creeping toward the brink of a darker abyss.
Saed woke up relatively early that day, although he wasn't working, from the noise of troops invading the refugee camp. Residents have grown used to this: Incursions by the Israel Defense Forces and the Border Police occur on an-almost daily basis. The asphalt roads gouged out in and around the camp attest to the destruction the forces have left in their wake here – not just in Gaza. The day we visited, other evidence of the raids could be seen, for example, in piles of dug-up earth that covered the steps at the entrance to the Tul Karm District Court, a relatively new building.
Sayed Abu Alawiya.
Earlier on that same Friday, at 4 A.M., Saed had eaten the meal preceding the daily Ramadan fast with his 21-year-old brother Mohammed; thereafter they returned to their respective apartments and texted each other via cell phone before going back to sleep. That would the last time they communicated. Saed was asleep in his parents' apartment until the furor outside woke him up. Border Police were invading a tall apartment building visible from the roof of Saed's building. It was there, some 200 meters away, that the troops searched for – and found – their target. They took into custody a young man apparently affiliated with the resistance battalions in militant Nur Shams.
Like many residents of the camp, Saed regularly filmed the army's raids and posted clips on TikTok. He decided to go up to the roof as he had in the past, to observe and document the unfolding events.
A minute after he went upstairs, his family heard a gunshot, they tell us now. Saed's parents didn't imagine that their son had been hit, but Mohammed rushed up to the roof to see what had happened. Saed's mother looked out of the window after hearing the shot and saw an Israeli security vehicle parked below. A drone buzzed above. Aya, seized by panic, hurried up to the roof. Her in-laws also made their way up.
A road destroyed by the Israeli army in Nur Shams.Credit: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters
The family stood at the door to the roof, but were afraid to venture any further, for fear of being shot. Mohammed peeked out and saw his brother's legs protruding behind a wall. Thinking Saed had lay down on the concrete floor to hide from the snipers, Mohammed also lay down. About a quarter of an hour after the shooting stopped, he started to crawl toward his brother – and found him awash in a pool of blood trickling from his neck, lying motionless on his side. Neighbors who had arrived in the meantime helped lower Saed from the roof. Fifteen minutes later a Palestinian ambulance arrived, after having been delayed by the Israeli forces, and evacuated him to Tabeth Tabeth Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The bullet that struck Saed penetrated his chin and lodged in his throat, slashing through arteries.
An eyewitness living in a nearby building, who came to pay her condolences the next day, saw Saed collapse and apparently bleed to death as he lay on the floor.
Sayed Abu Alawiya's father Nazmi on the roof where his son was shot dead.Credit: Alex Levac
An Israel Police spokesperson this week stated in response to a query from Haaretz: "During activity by Border Police fighters to arrest individuals wanted for terrorist activity in the Tul Karm district, a terrorist threw an explosive device. The forces fired at him and neutralized him." Nazmi: "Saed's life was all work and home. Nothing interested him other than his family and providing for them."
When we visited we saw no photos of the deceased posted in the house. Iyas prowled about restlessly and talked to himself. He doesn't know what happened to his father and hadn't yet met his new brother. His grandparents were telling him that Dad is at work.
The grandfather, with his heavy step, climbed up to the roof with us, wearing pink bedroom slippers, apparently his wife's. Steel rods thrust out of the concrete, a few broken chairs were scattered around. The camp's gray and desolate homes were spread out below.