On the morning of Saturday July 13, Sufyan Kawarea, a young man in his twenties, woke up and began preparing for his day at work making sweets in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip packed with hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Sufyan, who lived in eastern Khan Younis, had breakfast with his wife Bisan, whom he had married five years earlier. The couple had not been blessed with children due to health reasons.
At 7 AM, Sufyan arrived at his workplace—a small stall where he made and sold traditional sweets such as “kalaj,” “basbousa,” and “namoura” to the displaced residents in Mawasi. This had been his routine since hundreds of thousands of people fled from Rafah to Khan Younis in May due to an Israeli ground assault.
The Mawasi area stretches along the Palestinian Mediterranean coast, southwest of the Gaza Strip, from Deir al-Balah in the north, through Khan Younis, to Rafah in the south, about 28 kilometers from Gaza City. It spans 12 kilometers in length and about one kilometer in width.
Known for its agricultural land and fresh groundwater, Mawasi has transformed, due to Israeli occupation policies, from the “food basket of the Gaza Strip” to barren land and a hub for displaced people.
Covering an area of about 12,000 dunams (one dunam equals 1,000 square meters), representing about 3% of the Gaza Strip, Mawasi consists of sand dunes locally known as “sawafi,” interspersed with fertile agricultural valleys rich in groundwater.
The Great Explosion
Four hours after Sufyan arrived at his workplace, American-made F-35 fighter jets dropped their missile payload on the area crowded with displaced people. Silence fell for a few minutes, followed by screams and cries as thousands fled their tents.
Sufyan was hit by numerous shrapnel pieces all over his body, and the airstrikes destroyed his sweets stall, killing four of his colleagues right in front of his eyes.
He was transported along with hundreds of injured people to Nasser Medical Complex. An hour after his arrival, Sufyan was pronounced dead due to severe and multiple injuries.
Apart from killing Sufyan, the Mawasi massacre resulted in 90 deaths and 300 injuries, half of whom were children and women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In eastern Khan Younis, Sufyan’s wife Bisan received news of a massacre in Mawasi Khan Younis, which immediately filled her with anxiety. She went to her mother’s house and asked her brother Faraj to call Sufyan, but he did not answer.
Faraj rushed to Mawasi to find out about his brother-in-law’s fate. When he reached Sufyan’s workplace, he saw blood and destruction, expecting Sufyan not to be well.
Faraj headed to Nasser Medical Complex, two kilometers from Mawasi, and entered the emergency reception area, where he found his brother-in-law’s body on the ground due to the lack of available beds.
Faraj was uncertain how to break the news to Bisan, especially since their father had recently passed away, adding to the state of shock his sister was still experiencing.
Faraj decided to leave Nasser Hospital and return home to tell his sister face-to-face, rather than over the phone, fully aware of the shock that awaited her. When he finally broke the news of her husband’s death in the airstrike on Mawasi Khan Younis, Bisan’s initial reaction was that she already knew. She had a gut feeling from the moment she heard about the massacre that her husband had been killed in the attack, as her brother recounted her initial emotional response upon receiving the news.
Bisan lost her dream in that airstrike. She and her husband had been saving money from his work in the sweets business to afford in vitro fertilization after losing hope of conceiving naturally after six years of marriage.
Faraj spoke about his brother-in-law, saying, “Sufyan was a hardworking young man. His primary concern was saving enough money for a child. Killing him was a great injustice, as he posed no threat to anyone and never harmed anyone.”
He explained: “Sufyan was killed as a victim of this ongoing war, with no end in sight, no comprehensive ceasefire agreement, and continuous bloodshed targeting civilians first and foremost, preventing the displaced from returning to their normal lives and what remains of their homes.”
According to his brother in law, Sufyan was known for his skill in making sweets. He was recognized by the residents of Khan Younis before the war and among the displaced during the conflict for his mastery in making delicious sweets, especially namoura and basbousa.
Sufyan had been making sweets since childhood, mastering his craft. Even during the war, he didn’t abandon it and continued his trade wherever he was displaced, working in Rafah and then moving to Khan Younis after the attack on Rafah.
Many residents of Khan Younis, especially children, will miss Sufyan, the skilled sweets maker, for his generosity and the quality of the sweets he made and sold, concluded Faraj.
