ASO • A Safe Out

Al-Alam roundabout, Rafah · June 11, 2025

Ghazal Al-Farmawi

Age 16

Ghazal Al-Farmawi

Ghazal was a 16-year-old girl, forced to stop going to classes because of the violence. Her mother, Sanaa, once had a cleaning products business. After it was destroyed, their family had no income. Ghazal transformed herself into her family’s primary provider. On the morning she was killed, she told her mother from the car window: “Look at the sea, Mom, look how beautiful it is.” She stuck her head out and declared: “Mom, I’m brave and strong.” She spoke frequently about wanting to return to school. She wanted to eventually pass her final exams and get a college scholarship to anywhere safer. Her final promise: “Mom, I am going to get you the best food today, don’t worry.”

Every morning at 8:00 AM, Ghazal went to aid distribution centers, standing in massive lines, hoping to return with a few lentils or beans. Aid distribution points like this one were known as “death traps”—places where starving people were forced to gather before getting shot and bombed. On June 11, 2025, she and her mother went to the Al-Alam area in western Rafah.

That day, the Israeli military men opened fire in the air as thousands of people ran to get food before it was all taken. Ghazal and her mother threw themselves on the ground. When the men stopped shooting, people thought it was safe to run again. They got up and ran forward again, and the men this time fired into them. Here, Ghazal and Sanaa got separated. Her mother called out, “Ghazal! Where are you?” and heard Ghazal’s voice: “Yes, Mom, I’m here!”

Her mother later found her body at Nasser Hospital, covered in blood from exploding bullets. She never saw Ghazal alive again. Ghazal had tried to run and was shot in the back of the head, like many other people that same day. Her mother now sells Ghazal’s remaining clothes piece by piece to feed her surviving children.

Source: Her mother's testimony

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