Throughout their murderous Oct. 7 rampage, Hamas militants attacked Zikkim Seashore close to the Gaza Strip the place Abd Alrahman Aatef Ziadna and his household had been tenting alongside the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Mr. Ziadna, 26, was slain inside his tent, and 4 members of his Bedouin household vanished.
For the reason that slaughter of 1,400 Israelis and foreigners by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, the world’s sympathies have centered on the Jewish communities closest to Gaza, the place most of the victims lived. Atrocities have been additionally dedicated in opposition to one in every of Israel’s extra hidden minorities, Bedouin Arabs.
A minimum of 17 folks killed within the Hamas assaults have been Bedouins in and round Rahat, the most important metropolis in an impoverished, predominantly Bedouin space of southern Israel. One other sufferer there was an Arab paramedic from northern Israel who had come to work on the all night time music and dance competition the place 260 folks have been slain.
Ayesha Ziadna, 29, a relative of the Ziadnas who have been attacked on the seaside, mentioned that the 4 family members who disappeared are nonetheless lacking, as are plenty of different residents of the world, although the precise quantity was not instantly clear.
Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, who grew up within the Bedouin city of Tel Sheva, mentioned she rushed to her hospital in Beer Sheva because the employees scrambled to deal with tons of of sufferers that day, together with victims who had misplaced limbs and others who had been shot, together with Bedouins. They handled youngsters, seniors and foreigners too.
Hamas didn’t instantly goal Bedouins, however “rockets and bullets don’t discriminate,” Dr. Fraiha mentioned.
Within the wake of the assaults many Bedouins have misplaced their livelihoods at Israeli farms that have been ransacked, creating excessive hardships for an already struggling neighborhood. “There are lots of people who’re struggling,” Ms. Ziadna mentioned. “Many individuals are out of jobs. Persons are scared.”
Even earlier than the current assaults, Bedouins had lengthy suffered by the hands of Hamas. As a result of many reside in villages not acknowledged by Israel, they principally lack the bomb shelters and well being clinics that the federal government has made broadly obtainable in southern Israel. Even in Rahat, with a inhabitants of about 80,000, there have been solely about 10 bomb shelters, town’s mayor, Ata Abu Mediam, informed the Israeli information media.
When Hamas fires rockets, the folks have nowhere to go, Ms. Ziadna mentioned. The largely aluminum roofs of the Bedouin houses flip into lethal shrapnel, which she known as “knives.” Hamas rockets killed a number of members of 1 Bedouin neighborhood.
