A Grief-Filled Ramadan in the Al-Balbeisi Home
The Holy month of Ramadan will not be the same this year at the home of Bassam Al-Balbeisi. Bassam, an Emergency Medical Technician, was shot and killed by the Israeli Occupation forces while trying rescue twelve year-old Muhammad Al-Durrah, who was also eventually shot to death by Israeli soldiers in a shocking incident captured by international news cameras and broadcast around the world.
As the sun set on the first day of Ramadan, and the Al-Balbeisi family gathered for the breakfast meal, four year-old Anas asked, “Where is my father? Why hasn’t he come till now? I am going to wait for him outside.” There were no words to explain his father’s absence, there was no way a child could begin to understand the tragedy.
Bassam’s widow, Um Fayez, recalls “We were waiting for the call to prayer from the Mosque to break our fast. We were feeling the enormous loss. Anas questionshocked all of us. I tried to not to cry, but in vain. It was a terrible situation. My children started to cry. No one could eat.” Twenty year-old, Fayez, the eldest of the thirteen children, feels the responsibility that has been thrust upon him and tries to follow in his fathers footsteps to support the family.
This year during Ramadan, Bassam Al-Balbeisi
will not be returning home at sunset with sweets and fresh fruit for the
breakfast meal or waking his family in the early morning hours to share the
special meal that marks the beginning of the fast for that day.
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