Wissam Al-Qazzaz
Age 18
Wissam was born in 2007, making her 18 when she was murdered on January 7, 2025. She was a student with a deep, deep passion. After a full year of destroyed schools and interrupted learning, Wissam and her cousin Rahaf refused to quit. They relied on online learning, and they studied in worn down tents using the moonlight when the electricity was cut. Wissam had memorized all her study materials, and everyone who knew her said she had strong ambitions. She dreamed of becoming a pediatrician so she could treat the children who had suffered through all of this horrific violence.
Her father had spent many months trying to hide his children from those other men eagerly looking for children to kill. He sent his four children to different relatives, sadly hoping that if one house was blown up, his other children might survive. Wissam’s family had been forced to move more than seven times, fleeing between the Middle Area, Rafah, and the many so-called “safe zones” of Al-Mawasi, only to be forced out every few weeks by explosions on their neighbors.
On the evening of Tuesday, January 7, one week before a ceasefire, Wissam walked through the ruins of her neighborhood to her aunt’s house. Her high school graduation exams (Tawjihi) were coming up—the perfect chance for a Fall semester scholarship abroad if she passed them. So Wissam was heading there to review lessons with her cousin Rahaf, who shared her age and her dreams of leaving Gaza. They were in a room together, surrounded by books and the hope of a future, when a figure in a command center pushed a missile into that room. No warning. Wissam and Rahaf were murdered together.
Wissam was a girl student with a future anywhere else than imprisoned in a besieged strip where she could be butchered at any moment. The Rafah crossing had been sealed by her killers for almost an entire year. They gave her no way out. She died with her textbooks in her hands.
The votes that paid for the weapons
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)
House Bill, H.R. 8369: Israel Security Assistance Support Act