On Mother's Day last year, 5-year-old Ronan Arafat picked a rose on her way back from the nursery and offered it to her mother. This year, however, Ronan will not offer her mother a rose. She will not grow another year; she was killed by Israeli warplanes as they bombed their house in the south of the Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City on Nov. 14, 2012.
Her mother, Nisreen, says, “My daughter was martyred on the first day of the war. Our house is located in a big agricultural area. I remember hearing that day news about the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, so I brought my children together and got ready to go to the house of my family. And the moment my son Jalal and two daughters Maria and Ronan came to me to help them get dressed, the house disintegrated under heavy shelling.”