Palestinian influencer in Gaza mourns his family killed in Israel-Hamas war : NPR

This story accommodates descriptions of graphic violence.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — You can name him Gaza’s Mr. Congeniality.

Social media influencer Ibrahim Hassouna, 30 — who goes by the nickname Kazanova — spent years constructing his Instagram viewers of 440,000 followers by posting feel-good movies about his life within the Gaza Strip. Some would characteristic his mother.

“I are inclined to unfold constructive vitality,” Hassouna says. “However when the struggle began, there was no constructive vitality.”

His darkest hour got here on Feb. 12.

The Israeli navy unleashed heavy bombings to offer cowl for commandos throughout a profitable hostage rescue mission. Not less than 74 Palestinians had been killed in that bombing marketing campaign, in accordance with Gaza well being officers.

Hassouna’s mom, father, brother, sister-in-law and younger nieces and nephew had been amongst them. They had been killed as they slept within the dwelling the place they had been sheltering. It was the one night time Hassouna occurred to sleep over at a good friend’s home.

“Now I’m on my own,” he says. “Why ought to I reside my life and not using a household?”

Cheering up his household and followers

In Gaza, younger social media activists have attracted enormous audiences worldwide, posting photographs of what it is wish to reside below struggle.

Earlier than the struggle, Hassouna labored as a promoter for eating places and companies, emceeing their occasions and posting movies on Instagram of each day life in Gaza.

His movies had been all smiles and laughter.

One video he posted exhibits him on a joyride by way of Gaza Metropolis, within the passenger seat of a spacious automobile, with the sunroof open, holding a bouquet of flowers and blasting a tune.

The subsequent video he posted is a selfie on the sofa at dwelling: “I clear the lavatory, and do the dishes,” he begins.

“Liar,” his mother, Suzan, says within the background. He laughs.

These two movies had been from Oct. 6, 2023.

The subsequent day, Hamas attacked Israel, killing round 1,200 folks and taking greater than 250 hostage, in accordance with Israeli figures. Israel started bombing Gaza, killing, up to now, greater than 29,000 Palestinians, in accordance with Gaza well being officers.

Hassouna and his household fled their dwelling in Gaza Metropolis, then fled repeatedly, as Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets instructing Palestinians to evacuate farther and farther south for their very own security.

He could not resist posting photographs from the websites of Israeli bombings, however his mother needed him to avoid hazard. He tried to cheer up his household and his followers on Instagram.

He posted a video of himself making a falafel sandwich for a bunch of children sitting in a circle on the ground, together with his younger nieces, twins Suzan and Sedra, whom he adored.

“There have been no toys to play with,” he says. “I performed with them utilizing a pot lid, an empty jar.”

In one other video, he places his arm round his mother as he takes her on a stroll to the market.

“We’re right here for a change of ambiance,” he says to the digital camera. They purchase two cauliflowers and smile as they hitch a trip on a horse-drawn cart again to the house the place they’re sheltering.

However that was solely the Instagram model of the day.

Off-camera, Hassouna says, it was laborious to benefit from the cauliflower meal. The wartime worth of two cauliflowers was as a lot as what a whole meal used to price. His mother was deflated.

“That day,” says Hassouna, “She stated, ‘I will not go right down to the market anymore.'”

The hostage rescue mission

On Feb. 11, his mother texted him: “Come eat hen.” She’d managed to purchase 4 of them.

“A big achievement,” Hassouna says, in an overcrowded metropolis the place greater than 1 million displaced Palestinians had been clamoring for a similar restricted provides.

He’d determined to sleep at a good friend’s home that night time. So she promised to attend until the following day earlier than getting ready the household’s first hen meal for the reason that struggle started.

“She needed to sit down and collect the household, and for us to be pleased,” he says.

At 1:49 a.m. on Feb. 12, Israeli navy spokesman Daniel Hagari stated in a televised assertion, Israeli commandos stormed an house in Rafah, safely rescuing two hostages — Fernando Simon Marman, 61, and Luis Har, 70 — after 129 days in Hamas captivity.

At 1:50 a.m., the navy carried out a large spherical of airstrikes in Rafah as a diversion, to offer cowl to the forces as they escaped with the hostages, navy officers say.

When he heard the information of the bombings, Hassouna rushed again to the place his household had been sheltering.

“The world turned the other way up,” he says.

Gathering the shreds of his household

The main points are graphic.

He went by way of physique baggage. One physique was and not using a head. He acknowledged his dad’s finger.

He appeared within the second bag, and noticed one aspect of his mom’s face. It was the aspect he would see sleeping close to her each night time the place they had been sheltering.

One other bag had items of his brother.

He recognized his little niece Sedra from an earring in a single ear. He recognized little Suzan by a small purse she at all times slept with.

He spent hours on the website of the strike, amassing his household’s stays.

Lives destroyed

The operation was celebrated in Israel as a uncommon win, with greater than 100 hostages nonetheless believed to be held in Gaza after greater than 4 months of struggle.

Hassouna considers the Israeli perspective.

“You needed to retrieve two aged prisoners, it is their proper. Aren’t they people? They’re people,” Hassouna says. “A toddler can also be a human. Simply as you need to acknowledge the rights of the human whose life you need to save, you destroyed the lives of many individuals who had nothing to do with the entire struggle.”

On the day of the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, he reposted a social media video of Palestinian militants driving by way of an Israeli metropolis, celebrating it.

In hindsight, he criticizes each Hamas’ assault and Israel’s response.

“There have been many issues that would have been dealt with extra appropriately,” he says.

What his mom taught him

On a current wet day, Hassouna sat among the many graves of his household in Rafah.

“I am unable to even scent my mom’s scent, hear my father’s voice, inspect my brother, play with the youthful ones,” he says. “A nightmare, you may get up from, however this, you may’t.”

Just lately, he filmed himself distributing ingesting water to displaced youngsters in Gaza, to honor the reminiscence of his household.

“The darkness will probably be in my coronary heart, not on the surface. I’ll proceed to unfold happiness, goodness and hope,” he says. “An individual depends on one’s internal energy, the innate constructive vitality that they’ve.”

It is one thing he says he discovered from his mother. The phrase “my mother” is tattooed in Arabic on his wrist.

As he stands within the graveyard, a rainbow stretches throughout the sky.

Anas Baba reported from Rafah. Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv. Jawad Rizkallah contributed to this story from Beirut.