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“Bring me a white dishdasha like your black one”– dishdasha, i.e. a long usually white robe traditionally worn by men in the Middle East
This was the last request made by Ahmed Oweidat (20 years old) in a conversation he had with his father Ibrahim, who was in Mecca to perform Umrah, on Monday night.
Ahmed left his family home in Ain al-Sultan camp, west of Jericho, on the 25th of April, to hang out with a friend of his in Aqabat Jabr camp, only to be a victim of Israeli occupation troops who shot Ahmad in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet, during their storming of the refugee camp, according to ministry
Ahmad didn’t die right away. He passed in the early hours of the next day (26th) due to the critical injury he sustained.
Immediately after receiving the news of the death of his eldest son, Ibrahim Oweidat published a picture of the last conversation between them on his Facebook page and wrote a moving eulogy
??#Palestine | The father and little brother of Ahmad Oweidat (20) give him a farewell look in his village of Ein Al-Sultan in Jericho city, today. 26.4.2022. pic.twitter.com/i60m5LhFWL
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) April 26, 2022
Upon arriving at Jericho’s resting place coming from Saudi Arabia to bid farewell to his son, the grieving father told Wafa: “The news struck us like a thunderbolt. I was back from tarawih prayer as usual and received a message from my son asking for a white dishdasha as a gift. Less than 6 hours later I received the news of his martyrdom. This is the least that can be offered as a sacrifice for the country.”
With heartbreak, he added, “Perhaps this was his last request to wear a white foreshadows the better place he is going: wearing white in heaven as an angel as his body is carried on the shoulders of the people in the streets of the city of Jericho in tribute to him.”
The “Fatah” movement declared a state of mourning in the valleys and the province of Jericho.
It is worth noting that during the raids, two other young Palestinian men were wounded by live bullets.
The uncle of the martyr, Faisal Oweidat, told “Wafa” that Ahmed was hit by two bullets in the head region during the Israeli occupation forces’ indiscriminate shooting,’ noting that the martyr was just a student at Al-Quds University, the eldest son among 6 siblings, and he works in a private company in Jericho, where he worked hard to manage his time between his work and his education, like the rest of the Palestinian youth who love life and aspired for a good future.
For his part, the head of the Department of Families of Martyrs and Wounded People in the Homeland and Diaspora, Nasser Shalon, told Wafa that the martyr Ahmed Oweidat was the first martyr to rise from the Jericho and Jordan Valley since the beginning of this year.
He added that the occupation deliberately targets unarmed, defenseless civilians, and Palestinian camps in particular, which requires confronting the occupation and its crimes against humanity.
Large crowds of Palestinians in the governorate of Jericho and its valley area attended the funeral of the martyr, Ahmed, as they carried him on their shoulders to his final resting place. The funeral was carried out starting from the Jericho Governmental Hospital all the way to his family house in Ain Al-Sultan camp, where his family said their final goodbyes then the mourners performed a funeral prayer is over his body, in the old Jericho Mosque, before being buried in the new Jericho cemetery.
Oweidat is not the first victim to die out of serious sustained wounds. On Friday, 20-year-old Lutfi Labadi succumbed to his wounds after being shot by Israeli forces during army raids near Jenin earlier in the week.
Last week, Hanan Mahmoud Khaddour, 19, also succumbed to injuries after being shot by Israeli soldiers on her way home from a school lesson in Jenin. Another teenager, Shawkat Kamal Abed, 17, died in hospital after being shot near the northern West Bank city.
With the martyrdom of the young man, Oweidat, the number of martyrs since the beginning of April has risen to 21, including three women and a child (13 years), and 50 deaths since the beginning of this year, through the repeated the occupation forces’ raids and atrocities into Palestinian cities, towns, villages, and camps, according to sources.
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