For a year and a half, Umm Mahmoud Alerfan did everything she could to try to keep her children alive. As Israel pummeled Gaza with bombs, she kept them close, inside their shelter, terrified that a missile or sudden airstrike would steal them away.
On Friday, two months since the fragile ceasefire in Gaza was declared, Alerfan, back in Gaza City with her family, was preparing the meal to break the day’s Ramadan fast. Two of her sons, Mahmoud Alerfan, 15, and Yusuf Alerfan, 13, stepped outside — just for a moment, just to find firewood for their evening meal.
But an Israeli drone found them first, firing the missile that killed the boys and tearing Alerfan’s life apart.
“Two, both of them in one day,” she screamed, stained with her sons’ blood as she wept into their lifeless bodies. Two of their friends, Malik Althatha, 13, and Salim Hasnin, 15, who had joined them to gather firewood, were also killed.
NBC News’ crew on the ground captured the moment as Alerfan clutched their bodies, refusing to let go as her wails echoed through the broken streets. One man holds her back, and guides her away from the bloody scene, her sobs breaking into gasps.
“I did not allow them outside, but today I did. Why did they come out today?” she asked.
Standing beside one of the bodies, Awda al-Amarin struggled to understand why Israel had killed the children.
“Is this a truce?” he said. “Is this peace and safety? Where is the ceasefire?”
When asked for comment on the children’s deaths, the Israel Defense Forces told NBC News that it had targeted “terrorists” in central Gaza who it said, without providing evidence, were attempting to plant “explosive devices on the ground.”
The first phase of the ceasefire expired earlier this month, and talks continue in Doha. On the ground, the ceasefire remains marred by violence as Israeli airstrikes continue.
At least nine people were killed, including two journalists, by an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing Gaza’s health ministry.
Last week, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, just a day after an Israeli drone strike killed two people in northern Gaza.
More than 48,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its sweeping military offensive, according to local health officials, and around 70% of the infrastructure has been destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Israel launched the offensive after 250 people were taken hostage during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli officials.
A report published on Thursday by United Nations-backed human rights experts accused Israel of a range of violations against women, men, girls and boys, including perpetrating “genocidal acts,” and the “systematic destruction” of reproductive health care in Gaza.
It said Israel had carried out “sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians,” including photographing and filming “hundreds” of Palestinian men and boys in “humiliating and degrading circumstances while subjected to acts of a sexual nature.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the Human Rights Council, a U.N.-backed body that commissioned the team of independent experts, calling it an “antisemitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting, and irrelevant body.”
Israel has denied repeated accusations of genocide.
The ceasefire deal, which began Jan. 19, called for hostages to be freed in exchange for a truce.
With no agreement on the next phase, Israel has pressed for an extension of the first phase and demanded that Hamas release half the remaining hostages before discussing a lasting ceasefire.
Hamas has said it wants to begin negotiations on the second phase of the deal, which would see the hostages who remain in its captivity released, along with the withdrawal of Israeli forces and ultimately an end to the war.
The militant group said last week that it had agreed to release Edan Alexander, the last living U.S. citizen held hostage in Gaza, as well as the bodies of four dual nationals.
Nothing has been finalized, Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman told NBC News. But he said that the militant group had agreed to a proposal put forward by mediators and was awaiting the results of further negotiations.
