The Apple of Her Eye: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss After Israel Killed Her Only Son

“I’m from Tal al-Hawa in Gaza,” Amaal begins, her voice quiet but steady. “I was there during the first days of the Israeli assault. Then I fled to my family’s home in Rafah, thinking we would be safer there. But that’s where everything changed.”

An Israeli airstrike hit the house in Rafah, trapping the family beneath the rubble.

Among them was her only son, Khaled.

Khaled wasn’t just a child — he was a miracle, Amal says. After three difficult rounds of IVF, he…