Palestinian woman buries husband alone after two months trapped under Israeli siege

In a garden in southern Gaza under Israeli attacks, Aziza Qishta dug a grave with her bare hands. 

With no shroud, the 65-year-old Palestinian wrapped her husband’s body in a window curtain and buried him alone. 

Ibrahim Qishta, 70, had died after being struck in the neck by shrapnel during Israel’s military incursion into Rafah earlier this year. 

For two months, the couple remained trapped in their home in Khirbet al-Adas, surviving off dwindling supplies as air strikes and shelling pounded the city. 

When neighbours fled, Ibrahim refused to be displaced, and his wife refused to leave him behind. 

Since Israel broke the Gaza ceasefire in March, the army has killed nearly 4,000 Palestinians, bringing the death toll since October 2023 to over 54,000. 

In the following account, Aziza tells her story to the Middle East Eye. 

Trapped for two months

When the Israeli army re-invaded Rafah in March and imposed a full siege, all of Aziza’s children fled the area. Ibrahim, however, refused to leave.

“He was blind, unable to move on his own,” Qishta told MEE. 

“He told me: ‘I’m not leaving the house, and you’ll stay with me.’” 

Her reply was unwavering: “Of course. I won’t leave you after 50 years together. Never.”

For two months, they remained in the house. 

With movement impossible and supplies scarce, they survived on stored provisions – canned food, beans, rice, lentils, vermicelli, jam, and pasta. 

Water was fetched from a nearby building whenever possible.

“Day and night, we were surrounded by shelling – east, north, west,” she said. “The worst was from the west.”

They could hear Israeli gunfire, jets, and tanks all around them. 

“We couldn’t move,” she explained. 

Even when her son’s house next door was bombed and collapsed, they stayed put. “My husband insisted on staying, and I stayed with him.”

Her cousins were in a nearby house that was also hit. 

“It collapsed on them. More than 10 of them are still under the rubble today.”

‘I had no one to help me’

– Aziza Qishta, Palestinian woman

Then, one day, a loud explosion struck the building’s iron gate. 

“Dust filled the house. When it cleared, I saw the house around us had been destroyed,” Qishta said. 

Only a single room and a bathroom were left.

“Suddenly, I saw my husband bleeding from his neck – he had been hit by shrapnel.”

When she spotted the injury, she rushed to him, tending to his wound, washing his face, applying antiseptic, and wrapping him up.

Despite his heavy weight, she lifted him onto her back. 

“I had no one to help me. We moved slowly. I would stop to let him rest, then continue,” she explained. 

For five hours, Ibrahim continued to bleed. “We were alone. No voices, no light.”

Final hours 

Eventually, she reached her cousin’s house and laid him down on a mattress. 

“I said: ‘Let me get you some food,’ but he refused.” He accepted only a spoonful of honey and later asked for some water. “Then he said: ‘Pour some water on my head.’”

Aziza stayed by his side throughout. 

“I laid him down, sat next to him, never leaving his side.” 

She noticed his left hand trembling and offered to massage it. “He said: ‘No, leave it.’ Then suddenly, it went limp.” When she looked at his face, he had passed away.

“There were no soldiers around,” she said. 

“They come, bomb, and leave.” 

Alone, she searched the garden and found a small hole near an olive tree. With no shroud, she used a window curtain to wrap his body and began to roll him into the hole by herself.

“I placed his body in a plastic bag and continued rolling him gently. It took me two hours of exhaustion. But God gave me strength.” 

She buried him with her own hands, covering the body first with a zinc sheet, then wood, and finally soil. 

“I recited Ayat al-Kursi and Surah Yasin from the Quran over him and wept silently.”

‘I recited Ayat al-Kursi and Surah Yasin from the Quran over him and wept silently’

– Aziza Qishta

After the burial, she returned home. 

“I bathed, and for the first time in two months, I slept deeply from sheer exhaustion.”

Ibrahim was killed on 10 May but Aziza remained alone in the house for another two weeks, until 24 May, when the last of the food and water ran out. 

That day, she began to suspect that the grave might have been bombed. “I heard the buzzing of drones and gunfire.”

The following day, she went to check. “I found the zinc pierced with bullets, and his head exposed.”

Her voice heavy, she recalled: “My heart broke. I picked up his head, it felt as light as a loaf of bread, and returned it to the grave, dug a bit deeper, added a new piece of zinc and wood, and buried him again.” 

She said she didn’t feel fear or hesitation, “just pain, and patience”.

“I returned home, made a cup of tea, and had a simple breakfast,” she said. “I had just 250 millilitres of clean water left.”

Confrontation with soldiers 

Eventually, she decided to leave and confront the Israeli army. Carrying a stick with a white cloth and two small bags, she walked to a military checkpoint.

“They told me to stop and threw me a leaking water bottle,” she said. “Then a tank approached and threw another.”

Ordered to empty her bags, which held some medicine and clothes, she was then told: “We want to take your photo.” 

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When she explained she was wearing a hijab, they demanded she remove it. 

“I refused. A soldier shouted, and about twenty of them pointed guns at me, saying: ‘If you don’t remove it, we’ll kill you.’ So I removed it, broken.”

They made her walk with them but after ten minutes, she told them she was too tired to continue, so they placed her in a jeep. 

“One soldier spoke Arabic. He asked my name and about my children. I told him I had four sons and nine daughters. He asked why my husband hadn’t left earlier. I said: ‘He refused, and I couldn’t leave him.’”

They told her to wait under a palm tree, but she insisted on moving. They left her near a place called Marj, where she then got lost for four hours.

She said she then found an aid centre run by the Israeli army and an American company. 

“They told me: ‘Head north. Don’t go east or west.’”

Eventually, she reached a camp for displaced people, near Rafah. “They told me to head for Khan Younis.”

On the way, she met four young men. 

“I gave them my name. They called the Qishta family, my family, and they came to get me.”