Osama Abu Madiam, 28, and his cousin, Ghaliya Abu Madiam, 28, from the Bedouin town of Rahat, were both murdered by Hamas terrorists near Mivtahim on October 7.
Osama worked in a greenhouse in the moshav near the Gaza border, and that Saturday morning he took his cousin and four of his children to work with him.
When the Hamas attack began, Osama and Galia were both murdered, and Osama’s 5-year-old son, Atallah, was shot and seriously wounded.
Survivors told Ynet that Osama yelled at the attackers that he was Arab, and they replied “You’re more Jewish than a Jew” and opened fire with a volley of bullets that killed him.
The report says Atallah was rescued by passing police officers who brought him to a hospital, not believing he would survive. Though he lost consciousness twice on the way to treatment, Atallah eventually recovered and returned home to his family.
A family member told the Makan Arabic-language public broadcaster that Osama “was a good person, everyone loved him.”
When he went to work in the fields and greenhouses on Saturdays, he would often take his children, so they could spend time together when there was no school, the relative added.
“I never expected that a day would come when a Muslim would kill a Muslim,” the family member added. “What did [Atallah] do wrong that he was shot, that he saw his father be killed?”
Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.
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