GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — For more than two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the latest round of fighting between Israel and the Islamic Jihad which ended in a truce on Saturday, has once again shattered their illusion of peace, stole some loved ones and reinforced the sense of hopelessness of being where they are.
Mohammed Saeed and his fiancee, Dania Adas, both 19, hugged each other and promised each other, as always, to stay together forever. He left her house at 12:45 a.m. last Tuesday. It would be the last time he would hug her.
Just a few minutes after he left her house, Israeli airstrikes rained down on the Gaza Strip, targeting Islamic Jihad positions. Dania, along with several other civilians, was killed.
The couple got engaged in March of this year and decided to have the wedding on July 21. They planned to decorate their house together and have their own business, and chose Sameh as their future first son's name.
The Israeli airstrikes have so far killed six members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, in one of the most violent flare-ups between Israel and Gaza factions in months.
