October 1, 2025
Our teams met Hamada Abu Suleima in Al-Mawasi Camp, Khan Yunis, Gaza, a place where grief hangs as heavily as the salt-laden air. He stood outside his tattered tent, a silent figure shaped by loss, surrounded by nothing but sand, sea, and memories. His face was weathered, but his eyes held the kind of sorrow that never fades. When he spoke, it wasn’t just a story; it was a testimony.
There were once 11 people in his home: children, grandchildren, a wife, and a life. Every morning, the smell of fresh bread would waft from the kitchen, and every evening echoed with laughter and shouting from little feet running across the floor. Hamada wasn’t just a car driver. He was the sole provider, the protector, the pillar of a life held together by love and routine.
That life ended abruptly.
He had sent his son, Abdullah, home after waiting too long in the bread line. “Your mother is worried,” he told him. Hamada stayed in Abdullah’s place, never imagining it would be the last time he saw his family again.
The blast that struck moments later didn’t just take down walls. It erased an entire family from existence. All that could be found of them was minimal. A shoe. A piece of cloth. Tiny items that Hamada collected and buried one by one, not as closure, but as evidence that his loved ones had once lived.
For three months, he searched the rubble. Then, wounded and alone, he joined the wave of displaced families fleeing to Gaza’s coast. Today, he lives in a makeshift tent. The memories never left, and neither did the pain.
But neither did we.
Zakat Foundation of America has been on the ground in Gaza since the beginning of the crisis in October, 2023. Our team met Hamada during one of our emergency aid distributions in Al-Mawasi. We listened. We grieved with him. And then, we served.
