After enduring 15 brutal months of war in Gaza, Talal and Samar al-Najjar felt a glimmer of hope when a cease-fire was finally agreed upon. Their home was gone, their family displaced, and hunger was a daily struggle. But amidst the devastation, they clung to one blessing: all seven members of their family were still alive.

That fragile sense of luck shattered just hours before the truce was set to begin.

Their 20-year-old son, Amr, had hurried back to their village in southern Gaza, eager to be the first one home. Tragically, he became one of the last casualties of the war. Around 8:30 a.m. on January 19, Amr and two cousins were killed in what survivors described as an Israeli strike. The Israeli military, however, denied carrying out any attacks in the area.

“We’d been waiting so long for this moment, to celebrate the cease-fire, but our time of joy has turned into one of sorrow,” Talal al-Najjar shared after his son’s funeral.

The heart-wrenching loss underscores the cruel reality of war, where even the final moments before peace can bring unbearable pain. Sadly, Amr’s story is just one of many in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, with countless others still buried beneath the rubble.

As Gaza begins to heal, the al-Najjar family’s grief serves as a stark reminder of the human cost of war—and the hope that peace, when it finally comes, will last.