Reem Nabhan
ريم نبهان
Three-year-old whose grandfather's farewell moved the world · c. 2020–2023 · Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza
Reem Nabhan, three, was killed with her five-year-old brother Tarek when an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Nuseirat as they slept; footage of her grandfather Khaled cradling her body and calling her 'the soul of my soul' was seen around the world.
Reem Nabhan, three years old, was killed on November 22, 2023, alongside her five-year-old brother Tarek, when an Israeli airstrike hit the family’s home in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza as they slept, TRT and other outlets reported. Their mother, Maysa Nabhan, was wounded in the strike.
Days later, during the November 2023 truce, CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh filmed Reem’s grandfather, Khaled Nabhan, amid the ruins of the home. Footage of him cradling Reem’s body — kissing her cheeks, combing her hair, and repeating “the soul of my soul” — had already spread worldwide, becoming one of the defining images of the war’s first weeks. “I was wishing, hoping that they were only sleeping,” he told CNN. “But they weren’t sleeping, they are gone.”
Reem’s story drew renewed attention when her grandfather was himself killed in an Israeli strike on Nuseirat camp on December 16, 2024.
Sources
Open questions
Her grandfather Khaled Nabhan was himself killed in an Israeli strike on Nuseirat on December 16, 2024; no investigation into either strike is known.