She Could Have Been Saved: Body of Beloved Gazan Teacher Recovered From Rubble After Nearly Month
Gaza (QNN)- After more than 12 hours of relentless searching, Civil Defense teams in Gaza recovered the body of beloved English teacher Ghada Rabah from beneath the rubble of her home in Gaza City. Her remains were found nearly a month after she had been trapped under the debris following Israeli airstrikes.
Who’s Ghada Rabah?
The tragedy unfolded only a few meters away from the site where six-year-old Hind Rajab was killed earlier last year. Hind was trapped in a car surrounded by Israeli tanks and the dead bodies of her family members. She spent hours on the phone pleading with rescue workers before Israeli forces killed her and bombed the ambulance sent to save her.
In Rabah’s case, the pattern repeated.
For two full days, after the initial Israeli airstrike that targeted her home in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on September 22, Ghada called for help.
The Palestinian teacher, who also worked with AMIDEAST and directed the “Right to Play” foundation in Gaza, pleaded for rescue through relatives and humanitarian groups.
Our QNN colleague, Nour Osama, who knew Ghada Rabah and her important work in Gaza, remembered her as someone who always wore a smile and was loved by all her students.
“Ms. Ghada Rabah would walk into a room and brighten it up with her smile,” she said. “She was energetic, sweet and caring. Even when she was under the weather, she would still make her students feel loved. It is sad that she is no longer with us, but she stands as proof that Palestinians wanted life, and Israel wants death and destruction.”
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told QNN that time that Israeli forces allowed civil defense to move toward the Rabah home at around 7 p.m. But coordination was suspended for nearly an hour. The teams reached the area at 9 p.m.
“The building was rubble. We searched in vain. We had to withdraw,” he added. Two days before, Rabah phoned several relatives for help as Israeli forces besieged her home and opened fire.
The civil defense sought permission to enter. After 72 hours of waiting and coordination, Israeli forces finally allowed the teams to approach. But by then, the house had been bombed again and flattened completely.
“What we saw was a home completely leveled to the ground. We worked for more than an hour, but sadly found nothing,” he said.
Civil defense members described the scene with despair. “What we saw was a completely destroyed house. We searched and worked for over an hour, but unfortunately found nothing,” one rescuer told QNN.
