Three members of MK Ahmad Tibi’s extended family killed in Gaza bombing
Due to communication problems in war-torn Palestinian enclave, veteran lawmaker reportedly only informed of cousins’ deaths days later
Three members of the extended family of veteran Arab Israeli MK Ahmad Tibi (Ta’al) were killed in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been battling the Hamas terror group.
In a Sunday post to X, formerly Twitter, Tibi retweeted a media report about the deaths and added a quote from leading Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in Hebrew, English, and Arabic, “We love life if we can find a way to it.”
The three fatalities, reportedly from an Israeli bombing in the Nuseirat refugee camp, were Dr. Saher Tibi, an educator, 50; Faisal Tibi, 19, a computer science student; and Ahmad Tibi, 10.
The Ynet news site reported they are all family members of a cousin of Tibi’s father.
They were killed in recent days, but due to the communication problems in the Gaza Strip caused by the war Tibi was only informed of their deaths on Saturday, according to the report.
Speaking to Ynet, Tibi said, “May the suffering and pain end for all of us.”
عليهم رحمة الله. نحب الحياة اذا ما استطعنا اليها سبيلاً
יהי זכרם ברוך.אנו נאהב את החיים אם נמצא דרך אליהםWe love life if we can find a way to it
Allah yerhamhom RIP https://t.co/aui5ZyjRu0
— Ahmad Tibi (@Ahmad_tibi) January 14, 2024
The lawmaker said that his family members in Gaza had moved locations four times since the war started in October and that the final location, where they were killed in an Israeli bombing, was in an area that the Israel Defense Forces had declared a safe zone for Gaza civilians.
MK Ofer Cassif, a Jewish member of the mostly Arab Hadash party, offered his condolences to Tibi in a post on X and added: “We are obligated even in the most difficult times to continue the struggle. We are partners until the end of the cursed war and the achievement of justice.”
The war erupted on October 7 when the Hamas terror group carried out a devastating attack on southern Israel from Gaz that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. At least 240 others were taken as hostages to Gaza, and most of them are still being held captive after some were released in a temporary truce in November.
Israel responded to the attack with a military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in the Gaza Strip, and release the hostages.
The IDF says it is taking precautions to avoid civilian casualties and has urged Gazans to head to designated safe zones in southern Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry has said over 23,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the fighting started. These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 8,500 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.