Khaled Nabhan
خالد نبهان
Grandfather whose farewell to his slain granddaughter became a symbol of Gaza's grief · c. 1970–2024 · Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza
Khaled Nabhan, 54, known worldwide as the grandfather who cradled his granddaughter Reem Ali Khalil Badwan and called her 'the soul of my soul,' was himself killed in an Israeli strike on Nuseirat refugee camp on 16 December 2024.
Khaled Nabhan, also known as Abu Diaa, became one of the most recognizable faces of the war in November 2023, when video of him cradling his three-year-old granddaughter Reem Ali Khalil Badwan — killed with her five-year-old brother Tariq Ali Khalil Badwan in an Israeli strike in Nuseirat — spread around the world. Published accounts disagree on the precise day and on whether the strike hit the family home or a neighbouring building. Palestinian records establish the children’s names and ages; the archive leaves the remaining discrepancy visible.
Kissing Reem’s face and closing her eyes, Nabhan called her روح الروح (rūḥ al-rūḥ) — literally “soul of the soul,” commonly rendered “soul of my soul.” The footage was documented by photojournalists Ashraf Abu Amra and Yusuf al-Saifi and later authenticated by the Palestinian fact-checking platform Kashif. It is linked through the published record but not copied here because FALASTEEN has no republication licence.
“I used to kiss her on her cheeks, on her nose and she would giggle. I kissed her but she wouldn’t wake up,” he told CNN from the ruins of his home during the November 2023 truce. In the months that followed, displaced from his destroyed home, Nabhan was filmed again volunteering to feed other displaced Palestinians, and his following on Instagram grew to around one million people.
On December 16, 2024, Nabhan was killed in an Israeli strike on Nuseirat refugee camp — the same camp where he had mourned his grandchildren thirteen months earlier — Al Jazeera and Anadolu reported. He was 54.
Sources
- “Soul of my soul”: Khaled Nabhan killed in Nuseirat — Al Jazeera
- Palestinian grandfather who grieved for 3-year-old granddaughter killed in Israeli attack in Gaza — Anadolu Agency
- Ministry of Health-derived Gaza casualty registry, through 20 May 2025 — Iraq Body Count (PDF)
- Verification of the authentic grandfather-and-granddaughter footage — Kashif
- ‘I kissed her but she wouldn’t wake up.’ Grandfather grieves for 3-year-old granddaughter killed as she slept in Gaza — CNN
Open questions
No investigation into the strike that killed him is known to have been announced.
Sources
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/16/soul-of-my-soul-israeli-shelling-kills-gaza-grandfather-who-moved-world
- https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinian-grandfather-who-grieved-for-3-year-old-granddaughter-killed-in-israeli-attack-in-gaza/3425760
- https://www.iraqbodycount.org/pal/moh_2025-05-20.pdf
- https://kashif.ps/real-video-of-a-grandfather-kissing-his-killed-granddaughter-in-gaza-is-re-published-with-the-claim-that-the-child-is-a-doll/
- https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/29/middleeast/gaza-truce-israel-grandfather-returns-home-intl-hnk/index.html
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Khaled Nabhan.” Gaza, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/gaza/khaled-nabhan.- MLA
“Khaled Nabhan.” Gaza, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/gaza/khaled-nabhan. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-khaled-nabhan, title = {Khaled Nabhan}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/gaza/khaled-nabhan}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }