Jihad Sulaiman Zayed Emran

Location Rafah

Twelve-year-old Jihad from Tabet Zare’e in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip was said to have been very kind with his parents. He had three siblings. He had become quite a good student in the time before his death. Jihad loved playing football with his friends. He wanted to be a teacher. “He used to help me raise the family chickens,” his father, Sulaiman, said. Sulaiman was 39 at the time of his son’s death.

At 7:00 am on 1 August 2014, the Emran family home was attacked by an Israeli warplane, without prior warning. Five members of the family were killed instantly in the missile attack, including Jihad. Two other people were injured. Sulaiman considers how much is lost at the death of his son, saying “I had everything in the past, and now, I have nothing.”