Israeli mom: Let my kids out of Gaza
Israeli woman married to Palestinian who was killed in Gaza pleads to reunite with three of her children, still living in Strip
Galit Popouk is in mourning. Her husband, Rami Mahmoud Kadera was killed in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya last week.
The couple has six children. Three of their daughters – a nine-year-old girl and two-year-old twins – were with him at the time, and she is now fighting to get them out of the Strip and back home, to Nazareth Illit.
"I couldn't sleep the entire war. All I did was cry and smoke because of all the anxiety," she told Ynet. "I'm here, in Nazareth Illit and my girls are in Beit Lahiya, where our military might hurt them. I found myself calling the commanders at the checkpoints, giving them the address over and over again, begging them not to harm my husband and children."
Family portrait in Gaza (Eran Yoffie-Cohen)
Rami was killed two days before Operation Cast Lead came to its end. "My husband was a peace loving man. He was never involved in any terror activity. He just left the house to get some food for our Israeli children when he was killed, probably by IDF fire."
Nevertheless, she said, she is not angry at the IDF: "This is our army. The military protects all of us and my children."
Galit and Rami met 11 year ago. Rami was in Israel illegally at the time. Popouk soon became pregnant and the too married in a civil ceremony. The eldest, Jasmine (9) was followed by Tami (8), Maor (6), Daniel (3) and Sally and Dali (2).
After living in Israel for several years, the family moved to Gaza. "But after a year there I couldn’t take it anymore… one day I took three of my children to the local infirmary and after that I drove to Erez crossing, showed the soldiers my Israeli ID and they let me through."
She returned to Israel after the Gaza Pullout. "I guess I was the only Israeli, only Jew in the Strip. I knew I was leaving three children behind, but I had no choice," she said.
Since being back in Nazareth Illit, Popouk kept in constant touch with her husband and her daughters. And then came the war. "I kept following the news and talking to Rami, but he always told me not to worry and that he was looking out for the kids.
"I kept calling the commanders, I begged them to go in and get the children, but I was told they couldn’t send the troops in."
All she cares about now, she said, is getting her three daughters out of Gaza. "Jasmine, Sally and Dali lost their father. I am their legal guardian. My dream is to bring them back along with Gilad Shalit. Everyone should unite with their mothers."
'She's not fit to raise kids'
The husband's family in Beit Lahiya rejected Popouk's claim on her children and demanded that the children currently residing with their mother be returned to Gaza.
The children's grandfather, Abu Rami Kadera, condemned his daughter-in-law's actions. "She's not fit to raise kids," he said. "What kind of mother leaves 27-day old twins behind and runs to Israel?"
Despite the tough criticism, he invited her to "come and cry with us here in Beit Lahiya". He said she could "live like a queen" in Gaza.
Kadera said that if she refused to return, she could still visit the family in order to allow them to see the three children in her custody. "But to return the children we will never agree, because we worked hard to raise them, and only Allah knows how hard it is to raise twins at that age," he said.
The grandfather also rejected the court order to return the children to their mother's custody, claiming that the family living in Gaza was unable to enter Israel in order to attend the court hearings on the case. "I won't give up the children and I would like all six to be here with us," he concluded.
