Nour Yousef al-Kharma
Nour was killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family home on October 11, 2023.
On the morning of October 11, 2023, Israeli warplanes targeted residential areas in Deir al-Balah. One of the missiles struck the al-Kharma family home, collapsing parts of the structure and killing Nour and her nephew Yazan while they were in the living room. The strike occurred during a wider campaign of air raids that destroyed numerous civilian homes across Gaza. While her sisters and mother survived, Nour and Yazan’s deaths underscored the devastating toll of indiscriminate airstrikes on Palestinian families, particularly children and students who were caught in the violence of the conflict.
Biography
Nour was a 17-year-old high school student from Deir al-Balah, south of Gaza City. A bright and ambitious young woman, she dreamed of becoming a doctor and often wrote about her desire to make her family proud. On October 11, 2023, she was killed when an Israeli airstrike struck her family home. She died alongside her young nephew, Yazan, while they were playing in the living room. Her sisters and mother survived the blast, but her sudden death left her family devastated, her schoolbooks and diary buried under the rubble as a painful reminder of her unfulfilled dreams.
Born in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Nour was the youngest daughter in her family and had just entered her final year of high school. She was known for her determination, optimism, and devotion to her studies. Nour often expressed her dreams of becoming a doctor, inspired by a desire to serve her community and honor her family. Her school bag, found under the rubble after her death, contained not only her books but also her diary, where she had written: “I want to make my family proud of me and I will get high grades by the will of Allah.”
On October 11, 2023, as Israeli bombardments intensified across Gaza, Nour considered leaving her home to stay with relatives in a safer area. Her father, however, asked her to remain at home. The following morning, their house was bombed. Nour and her young nephew Yazan were in the living room, playing together, when the missile struck. Both were killed instantly. Meanwhile, her sisters Ola and Huda, along with their mother Jamalat, were in the kitchen preparing breakfast and miraculously survived.
Nour’s life was cut short just as her future was beginning. Her ambition to pursue medicine, her love for her family, and her dedication to her studies reflected the aspirations of countless young Palestinians whose lives have been lost to violence. For her relatives, she will always be remembered as a kind, determined, and hopeful young woman whose potential was destroyed in a single moment of war.
Pleas of Surviving Relatives and Family if any
Nour’s death left her family shattered. Her uncle, Mohammed al-Kharma, spoke with grief about her final wishes. He explained that Nour had wanted to leave home and stay with relatives to escape the bombing, but her father urged her to remain at home. “It was her fate,” he said quietly, recalling the pain of watching her young life cut short the very next morning.
Her mother, Jamalat, and sisters Ola and Huda survived the strike, but their survival is marked by unbearable loss. They had been in the kitchen preparing breakfast when the explosion hit. When the family searched through the rubble afterward, they found Nour’s school bag. Inside were her books and a diary in which she had written: “I want to make my family proud of me and I will get high grades by the will of Allah.” The words, now preserved by her relatives, serve as both a reminder of her dreams and a heartbreaking symbol of the future she never lived to see.
Her family speaks of her as a determined and loving daughter, whose dream was to become a doctor. “She wanted to heal others,” her uncle said, “but we could not protect her.” The
Additional Information
Sources & References
The death toll in Gaza is rising as Israel presses on with its war against Hamas, following the attacks on 7 October in which 1,400 people were killed in Israel. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 9,000 people have been killed since the war began. Because of safety concerns, there are relatively few journalists in Gaza to document the human cost of the fighting. But the BBC has been speaking to a number of families and eyewitnesses who have told us stories of loved ones who have been killed in recent days.1 bbc.com Open source