Reem Abdo
Age 6
Reem Abdo was 6 years old. She lived near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City with her father Fadi Munther Salah Abdo (26), mother Haya Yousef Miqdad, grandmother Mariam Abdo, sister Mariam (5) and brothers Omar (3) and Karam (1). Her distant relatives said she was a polite and elegant. An excellent student who loved reading. She had everything a little girl could ever ask for. Her grandmother constantly talked about Reem and her siblings to the extended family—she said Reem had the most beautiful life and was so happy every day. Her father Fady, who’d recently been released from prison in Israel, had started up a successful restaurant and dreamed of opening up more restaurants in other villages. Reem had a home, a school, siblings, and parents who could provide for her.
Reem’s family did not plan to leave Gaza. They did not expect the sheer depravity of the annihilation. They had no foreign citizenship. And so, they refused to leave for Rafah—like thousands of other people, they had heard reports of families being bombed and shot on the roads and side streets on the way to Rafah and decided that it was safer to stay where they were. During the first Israeli military invasion of the Al-Shifa area, her family stayed inside her grandmother’s home with her uncle and aunt and his children. They survived and decided it would get calmer.
When eviction orders came to their neighborhood, the troopers began bombing their empty streets and nearby empty homes soon after. Reem and her family members knew they had to get out. And so, all the adults and kids in the house quickly and silently gathered whatever they could and prepared to sneak outside as discreetly as possible—a desperate, last-resort attempt to get past the men in the tank at their door. Reem was terrified by the horror of what was happening around her. She couldn’t take it anymore. She ran out first.
The men in the tank saw Reem clearly. She saw them aiming at her up close and then froze. The men looked through their optics and saw Reem freezing then run back inside to hide with her panicked family. They decided not to use "regular" machine guns or rifles. They were eager to make sure she did not get away.
To make absolutely sure they ended Reem, they chose the heaviest weapon they could—they blasted an anti-tank round straight into the house. They used an explosive meant to tear through the walls and metal armor, to hunt down a little girl who was trying to run away. The blast demolished the entire building and collapsed it right on top of everyone inside.
On March 29, 2024, these individuals murdered seven people. Young Reem, her mom, her dad, her little siblings, and her great-aunt. All to guarantee that one small girl couldn’t escape. Three of her family members lived: her great-uncle and his two unmarried children. The men in the tank parked themselves right outside her door the whole time, but the blast was so massive her three living relatives said it felt like an airstrike.
The votes that paid for the weapons
Senate Resolution, S.Res. 504: Human-rights report on Israel (Senate blocked the vote)
House Bill, H.R. 6126 (House): Emergency supplemental appropriations for Israel
House Resolution, H.Res. 1102: House passage of government funding that included Israel military financing