War-ravaged Gaza families marrying in-laws for support
It is common practice in Gaza for a widow or widower to marry an in-law to keep the family together, and often they are being promised financial assistance to do so.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Ali Abd Rabbo is 19, but looks even younger. He sits in front of a computer, chatting on Facebook like most of his peers. In a few days, however, Ali will do something that he is not really prepared to do: He is going to marry two older women — the wives of his two brothers who were killed in the 2014 war against Israel.
In their house in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, Jihad, 24, was sitting on her bed, holding a picture of her daughter Rahaf, 3, and her husband, Alaa. Tears streamed from her right eye. She had lost her left eye in the shelling that killed her husband, her daughter, her mother-in-law, her brother-in-law Mohammed and his two-year-old son Jamal, and two other brothers-in-law, Ibrahim, 22, and Abdullah, 23.
During the war, there was severe shelling as the family took shelter at a relative’s house. Ali, who had returned from receiving treatment for his war wounds in Turkey, and his sister, Walaa, 26, who told Al-Monitor her family’s story, somehow survived, along with Jihad and Islam, Mohammed's wife.
“I saw their bodies blown up in front of my eyes. I could not believe it. It was during the month of Ramadan, and we were about to eat. This winter reminds me so much of them. I will never forget them,” she said.
