Naya Ahmad
Age 2
Naya was two years old. Her mother Miska had brought her to Gaza from Egypt to visit her grandparents—a simple trip to meet the family who loved her. She was a toddler who had no concept of borders or crossings or war. She just knew her mother's arms and her grandparents' faces.
Naya's father remained in Egypt, filing appeals and navigating the coordination system to get his wife and daughter out. Miska meanwhile working all day and night in the open desert to find anyone who was willing to record their desperate desires to leave Gaza despite everyone's fears of the men from Hamas intercepting and punishing them. Working with American colleagues to get their names on evacuation lists at Rafah. They were actively trying to leave Gaza. Her mother was doing everything a parent could do to protect her child from a place that was killing children.
In the summer of 2025, Naya became severely ill, tying the family to a hospital bed just as forced evacuations intensified. She was too sick to be carried into the chaos outside. Her mother would not leave her side. Her grandparents were falling ill themselves. The family was physically unable to follow evacuation orders—a mother carrying a dying toddler through a bombardment was not an evacuation, it was a death sentence.
Naya and her mother disappeared in the bombing waves and ground invasion of neighborhoods and hospitals in Gaza, in September 2025. In Miska's last communication, she said she really wanted to evacuate south to the "safe zones" (where families were also being bombed and shot in their tent camps at night) but couldn't leave the hospital where she was staying until Naya's fever got better. Miska and her little daughter from Egypt have been missing for almost a year.
Miska and her daughter were both lost, trying to escape violence they had literally nothing to do with. Naya accompanied Miska everywhere to help collect recordings and raise awareness until she was too sick to move anymore, but sick individuals interested in their own live entertainment wanted the absolute worst for both of them.
The votes that paid for the weapons
Joint Resolution, S.J.Res. 33: Block arms sale to Israel—2000-lb bombs (reattempt)
House Bill, H.R. 8034: Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024
House Bill, H.R. 815 (Senate): National Security Supplemental—Trojan Horse (shell: Veterans bill)