A Palestinian Sanitation Worker Is Shot Dead by an Israeli Sniper for Daring to Go Up on His Roof

A toddler is kneeling on sand scattered on the roof of his building. He's two years and five months old and has no idea what he's kneeling on. His grandparents turn their gaze away – the sight is overwhelming for them. Little Iyas is kneeling on the blood of his father, which hasn't yet been fully absorbed into the sand. This is where Saed Abu Alawiya, a sanitation worker of 32, had collapsed three days earlier. His wife Aya, 24, was in the final days of her pregnancy when he was shot to death on the roof of their home. The family threw the sand on the concrete floor there the next day to cover up the bloodstains, but now Iyas is perched on it, carelessly sifting it between his fingers.

A fan dangles from the ceiling of the living room in the apartment, its cable threatening to snap at any moment. There is an unpleasant odor of food hanging in the air; a stark, moldy wall; and a dull neon light that barely illuminates the furniture in the room. The two apartments owned by the Abu Alawiya family are in a building in the western neighborhood of the Nur Shams refugee camp, adjacent to the city of Tul Karm in the West Bank. During the past six months the Israel Defense Forces have continually raided the city's two camps, Nur Shams and Tul Karm, destroying, arresting, killing.

The bereaved parents are sitting on the tattered sofa, their expressions bleak. Fadwa is 63, her husband Nazmi is 64; the agony etched on his face is even more intense than hers. When we visited the family three days after the rooftop killing, which took place on April 5, the atmosphere was grim and oppressive – and Aya, the widow, wasn't there: She had given birth the day before, via C-section, to a son. He was named Saed for the father he will never know. The new mother was still recovering in Tabeth Tabeth Hospital in Tul Karm, where her husband died. We're sitting in the home of the bereaved grandparents on the first floor; Saed's apartment is on the second floor. Fadwa and Nazmi have five other children; Saed was the eldest.

Iyas skitters about and sucks on an empty bottle. For the past seven years, his father had worked in the sanitation department of the Tul Karm Municipality. He left every morning at 5 A.M. and returned around 10 A.M., after sweeping the city's streets. His monthly wage was 2,500 shekels (roughly $700), which also supported his parents. Saed attended school until eighth grade, when he dropped out and began to work at odd jobs. His father has been unemployed for many years, after having been an occasional day laborer. On Friday, two weeks ago, their already harsh and destitute lives deteriorated further, creeping toward the brink of a darker abyss.

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https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twilight-zone/2024-04-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/a-palestinian-is-shot-dead-by-an-israeli-sniper-for-daring-to-go-up-on-his-roof/0000018e-f9a5-d6a0-a9ef-f9bd171b0000