Iman Abu Nada
Age 5
Iman was 5. She was the first grandchild in her family. Their darling. A friend of her brother said Iman was smart, clever, and lovable: everyone who saw her loved her. Her favorite color was pink. And the violence began before she could even start school. She never had a first day of class, never carried a backpack, never opened a lunchbox, and never had classmates.
Iman did not like her life at all. She missed her toys, her bedroom, and the friends she used to have before everyone was forced to leave. She wanted to go somewhere safer. But Iman did not have a plan for leaving Gaza, because five-year-olds don’t make evacuation plans. They don’t navigate crossing lists, negotiate with brokers, or calculate which roads are safe to take. Iman needed the adults around her to survive.
Her aunt said of her: “The sweetest one, beloved of her aunt. The first grandchild who filled the house with her laughter, her beauty, and her talk that sometimes seemed older than her age.” She would stand in front of the mirror and admire herself and her curly hair, saying, “I’m beautiful and my hair is so beautiful.” Like other children, she was terrified of the sounds of war and would cry and scream searching for a lap to fall into.
On the night of November 2, 2023, her family woke to the sound of shelling right beside them. Her aunt recounted: “During our escape from the house, my brother was carrying little Iman, who had been struck by shrapnel from the shelling. We didn’t realize anything at first—we didn’t hear crying or moaning, and we didn’t want to believe that she had been martyred!” Two days before she was killed, she had told her aunt about her fear of the war and how much she hated the shelling.
The votes that paid for the weapons
House Bill, H.R. 6126 (House): Emergency supplemental appropriations for Israel