A Love Story Cut Short by ‘Israeli’ Aggression in Gaza
MAHMOUD MUSHTAHA
Mohammad Sameh Saad holds a photo of his fiance Diana Adas, 21, who was killed along with her sister Eman, 17, by an Israeli bombing on their residential building in the Tofah neighborhood east of Gaza City on May 9. (PHOTO COURTESY MAHMOUD MUSHTAHA)
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July 2023, pp. 36, 39
Voices from Gaza
By Mahmoud Mushtaha
THE HISTORY OF LOVE and war in Gaza is long and complicated. For Mohammad and Diana, the young couple from Gaza, marriage was their light at the end of the tunnel.
Mohammad Sameh Saad, 19, works with his father in a sewing factory. To work toward his goal of starting a life with Diana Adas, his fiancée, he worked two jobs: he took on freelance marketing assignments before going to his factory job.
“Two months ago, Mohammad told me he wanted to marry. I told him that he was still young, but he told me he loved one person and wanted to marry her,” Mohammad’s uncle Shadi told the Washington Report. “Mohammad asked her family for her hand and they agreed.”
“We first met on March 18, and on March 19, we signed the marriage contract at her home,” Mohammad said. “We then began planning the wedding, what we would buy, where we would have the wedding and where we would spend our honeymoon.”
Mohammad set the wedding date for July 21, 2023, giving plenty of time for wedding preparations. They planned to get married in a chalet. He made all the arrangements, rented an apartment, and furnished it. “The furniture cost about $15,000,” Sameh Saad, Mohammad’s father, said.
DIANA WAS MY EVERYTHING
Mohammad’s fiancée, Diana, 19, dreamed of completing her university studies and continuing for a master’s degree. “She was very smart. I was proud of her, she always dreamed of working in a bank as an accountant,” the grief-stricken young man said.
His two months of engagement with Diana were among the happiest moments of his life. “I was compensated for every unfortunate thing I ever experienced in my life when I got engaged to Diana. She was my mother, my father, my friend, my girlfriend, my everything.” Mohammad used to visit her at her home. Diana’s father used to tell Mohammad, “You are my second son; Hamza is my first eye and you are my second.”
“We were always supportive of each other; for instance, during her exam period when she was exhausted, I would take her out for a walk,” Mohammad said. “Whenever I was tired of life, she would take me in her arms and tell me that she would always be with me.”
They planned to buy a large house for the children they hoped to have. “We were planning to save money and work so that our children could have a good life,” Mohammad said.
HEARTACHE
Mohammad saw his fiancée just half an hour before she was killed in an air raid by Israeli occupation forces on a nearby house. “She called me from her brother’s phone to ask where I was. I dressed and walked to her. When I entered her home, she kissed my hand. She does this every time she sees me,” Mohammad said.
“Yesterday when I saw her, she was as beautiful as the moon,” Mohammad said. But “I felt something strange; my heart hurt. I cried in her lap and told her, Diana, promise me that you will never leave me,” he said. She assured him that she wouldn’t and tried to relax him, playing with his hair and tickling him.
“She asked me to stay with her but I told her I would see her on Friday,” Mohammad said while holding back his tears. Half an hour later, she was dead.
On May 9, Israel launched a series of airstrikes on Gaza. Ten people, including Diana and her 17-year-old sister Eman, were among those killed. “Suddenly, at 2:00 a.m., Abu Diana called me and said, ‘Diana’ and ‘the ambulance.’ He disconnected the line and I was unable to understand what he was saying,” Mohammad’s father said.
“Mohammad, his mother, and I quickly headed to the hospital. Upon our arrival, they told us that Diana had been hit in the head and killed; she had been taken to the morgue,” Sameh said. Hours later, they returned home. Mohammad fainted several times due to the overwhelming emotional trauma.
During the funeral prayer, Mohammad wept and recalled the dreams they shared and their plan to tell their love story to their children. He kept looking at the ring on his right hand that Diana had bought for him. “Diana was the kindest person in the world. I wish I could have given her everything she wanted and we could have continued to live together,” he said.
“Did our love threaten them? Why did they kill her? How can I cope with her death?”
Mahmoud Mushtaha is a Gaza-based freelance journalist and translator. He is also working as the media assistant at We Are Not Numbers.
