Mother of the Year Award Goes to Gaza Widow

Aisha Abu Shannab lost her husband and son to war, but has managed to raise her remaining children and run a small NGO for widows in Gaza, Rami Almeghari writes.
A Palestinian woman waits for the return of Fatah movement activists at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 3, 2012. The Islamist Hamas group allowed the 10 activists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, who fled Gaza into Egypt in 2007 during internal fighting between the two political rivals, to return home in what the group said was a sign of rapprochement, according to a Hamas official. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3
A Palestinian woman waits for the return of Fatah movement activists at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip Dec. 3, 2012. - REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Rami Almeghari.jpg
Rami Almeghari

Aisha Abu Shannab, or Om Hassan, a woman in her 50s from the Gaza Strip, was awarded the Mother of the Year prize on Feb. 28. She received the honor from the Ex-Warriors Association, a local chapter affiliated with the Arab League.

Om Hassan is also the widow of late Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shannab, who Israel extra-judicially killed in 2003, breaking a 51-day truce between Israel and Gaza-based armed factions.

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