‘We will go to heaven together’: Israel kills Gaza Health Ministry chief’s son in targeted strike
He [Basir] told me, ‘The Israelis are targeting both of us’. I replied, ‘Good, at least we will go to heaven together.”
Dr. Munir al-Bursh has been one of the most remarkable voices from the Gaza Strip during the past three years of the genocidal assault inflicted upon the Palestinian people by the Israelis and their Western allies. As the director-general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Dr. al-Bursh has documented the unbearable suffering of his people and made fervent appeals to civil society, humanitarian organisations, and international institutions to speak up for them and bring their suffering to an end.
An eloquent communicator, Dr. al-Bursh has used his social media accounts and appearances in broadcast media to articulate the realities of life in Gaza, giving voice to experiences that might otherwise go unheard.
Last year, he wrote a heartbreaking elegy for the hundreds of Palestinians whom the Israelis tortured, killed, dismembered, and sent back to the Gaza Strip in a state where most of them were unrecognisable and had to be buried without identification. In December, he wrote a lament for his cousin Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who was tortured and raped to death in an Israeli dungeon. More recently, he posted an appeal for the release of his cousin’s body from the Israeli custody so that it could be given a dignified burial, and another appeal to save Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya “before it is too late.” The other day, after the collapse of a building that killed 21 people (including 12 children), Dr. al-Bursh described the precarious living conditions in the besieged enclave, saying, “Our homes are standing graves… and our tents are shrouds.”
On Saturday, tragedy reached Dr. al-Bursh’s doorstep.
The Israelis killed his eldest son, Basir al-Bursh, outside the family’s tent in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. In a video, an emotional Dr. al-Bursh is seen carrying his departed son, who is wrapped in a blanket, and bidding him farewell.
“We were together side by side,” al-Bursh says in another video.
“He [Basir] told me, ‘The Israelis are targeting both of us’. I replied, ‘Good, at least we will go to heaven together.’ He did not want both of us to be killed.
“As soon as he stepped out of the tent, he was killed. May God rest his soul.”
Al Jazeera reported the scene of Basir’s murder as “quite graphic.” “He was leaving the tent when he was struck by a drone missile directly,” it added.
The Israelis have not issued a statement about Basir’s targeted slaughter. They usually issue statements justifying the murders of Gaza officials and their family members.
At Basir’s funeral, his mother says:
Your trust, You have taken back from me, O Lord.
O Lord, I hope I did not fall short in caring for him.
O Lord, may You have received him from me in the way that You love and are pleased with, O Allah.
Be pleased with my son, O Lord.
O Allah, we are content with Your decree, so make us content with Your giving and Your recompense, O Lord.
O Allah, we are content with Your decree, so make us content with Your giving.
O Allah, we are content with Your decree, so make us content with Your giving.
O Lord, compensate us, O Lord.