Editor's Note: The video above contains graphic and disturbing images. The following program contains scenes that may offend your moral sense.
Istanbul CNN –
Sara Khreis keeps thinking about the last day she spent with her mother.
Her family had debated for weeks whether to flee as Israeli troops moved into the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, tanks rolled past their front door and a horrific cacophony of bombs, quadcopter drones and gunfire thundered around them.
After two nights of bombing so intense they thought it might blow up their house, they knew they had to leave.
“We woke up on November 12th, the day I will never forget as long as I live. I remember every detail of it, minutes, hours, seconds,” 18-year-old Sara said in a recent interview with CNN, holding back tears.
That morning was chaotic, she said. More than 20 people, relatives and neighbors, were hiding in their home as the war worsened. Sara's 57-year-old mother, Hala, always so focused on taking care of everyone but herself, prepared a quick breakfast amidst the frantic packing of her bags and took time to pray. Suddenly they heard their neighbors screaming outside that an evacuation route had been set up: “Come, get out, come, get out!”
Khreis family
Sara with her mother Hala. “My mother has been my whole life. My mother's life was dedicated to me, my siblings and my father. To her grandchildren, she was the loving 'Teta,'” Sara said.
The next thing Sara knew, they were putting on their shoes and rushing out the door. She had a brief argument with her mother about whether she could help her carry her bag – it's now agonizing to replay it. Then they were out on the street, joining a wave of other people holding up white flags: a universal symbol of surrender.
At the front, a few steps ahead of the others, Hala walked with her then four-year-old grandson Tayem, holding hands, through a rubble-strewn street, a white flag in the other hand. Seconds later, a shot rang out and Hala fell to the ground.
This unthinkable moment was captured on camera. The video surfaced in a report by British news website Middle East Eye earlier this month. Sara and her siblings feel sick while watching.
The clip of Hala's murder is one of a growing number of clips showing unarmed civilians carrying white flags being shot in Gaza. The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said it was investigating nine such incidents. CNN has investigated four cases, including that of Hala Khreis.
CNN made several attempts to sit down with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to share its findings. You haven't commented yet.
Among the most frequently reported incidents by CNN was the shooting of three Israeli hostages, which the IDF admitted to killing because it mistakenly believed their surrender was a trap. The IDF has repeatedly claimed that it is doing everything in its power to prevent civilians from being harmed, but its soldiers shot hostages waving a white flag, violating its rules of engagement and raising questions about those efforts.
Another video previously reported by CNN shows a young man on the ground after being shot while trying to evacuate Gaza City. His father, holding a white flag, could be seen crying over his body. The footage does not show the moment he was shot, and the IDF did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
My mother would be turning 58 on December 30th and had her grandson with her. So why would you shoot them? What's between you and her? They made us feel like we could go safely, we had white flags in our hands as instructed.”
Sara Khreis
The latest incident occurred just this week in al-Mawasi, a coastal town in southern Gaza that was previously designated a “safe zone” by the IDF. Ramzi Abu Sahloul, 51, was among a group of five men who raised their hands and waved a white flag. He told Ahmed Hijazi, a Palestinian journalist, that they tried to return to a house where his brother was being held by Israeli soldiers to plead for his release. Shortly after interviewing him, Hijazi filmed two Israeli tanks in the distance, behind a raised embankment, and then filmed Sahloul being fatally shot in the chest. The impact of the first shot is visible in the footage and appears to come from the direction of the tanks.
The fact that the footage of Hala's murder even exists is a mixed blessing, say her children, who spoke to CNN from Gaza and Turkey. They hope it could be used as evidence in a possible future investigation into her death. On the other hand, they say it has forced them to relive the devastating day their mother was stolen from them, searching for clues to questions they fear will never be answered.
Khreis family
An old family photo of Hala with her grandson Tayem, now 5 years old. They were holding hands when she was shot.
“My mother would be turning 58 on December 30th and she had her grandson with her. So why would you shoot them? What's between you and her? They made us feel like we could go safely, we had white flags in our hands as instructed,” Sara told CNN in an interview from Istanbul, where she joined her Turkish fiancée after escaping via Rafah Crossing. “Nobody knows. Nobody knows.”
Sara and the rest of her family say Hala was shot dead by Israeli forces despite an agreement to allow them to safely escape the besieged neighborhood.
The IDF has not commented on the family's claim, but satellite images and photos from the same period reviewed by CNN show Israeli troops were stationed in the area, including at a school just 200 meters (about 650 feet) away down the road west of where Hala was killed. Hala's family said tanks were also stationed on the road ahead to the south.
The Khreis family said they were told that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had organized an evacuation route on a southbound road, but as they fled the message changed and headed east. Hala didn't hear the shouts telling her to turn around until it was too late.
The ICRC said it never agreed to help with the evacuation, highlighting the challenges families face in receiving clear information about the escape route. “Given the danger and uncertainty of the situation, it is not and remains the role of the ICRC to issue instructions for evacuation, as we could not guarantee their safety,” the humanitarian organization said in a statement. “According to international humanitarian law (IHL), it is the responsibility of the belligerents to ensure the safe passage of civilians, regardless of the agreements on evacuations, safe zones or humanitarian pauses. Even if people were to stay, they would remain protected.”
The story of how the Khreis family decided to flee sheds light on the confusion that shrouds the evacuation plans and the impossible decisions that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have had to make as the fighting moved ever closer to their homes, destroying lives, families fell apart and destroyed dreams for the future.
Hala goes for a walk with her son Mohammad, smiles and waves at the camera.
“My mother has been my whole life; She was my friend and my everything”
The months before the outbreak of war were happy months for Hala and her family. Hala and her husband had retired as Arabic teachers four years earlier after working at a local school for over 35 years. They had purchased a new home and were now adjusting to the joys of watching their children and grandchildren grow up.
Sara had just gotten engaged to her boyfriend Faisel and was starting to plan their wedding. Together with her mother, she organized the details so that the extended family could travel to Turkey for the ceremony. Hala's 22-year-old son Mohammad had graduated from college and the family threw a big party to mark the occasion at one of their favorite restaurants. Hala had planned to help Mohammad, her only son, find his life partner. They had planned to announce his engagement on October 7th. Then everything changed.
Hala claps and smiles next to her son Mohammad at a family graduation celebration.
“My mother has been my whole life; She was my friend and my everything. I didn't do anything without asking her or getting her opinion, she was by my side every step of the way,” Sara said as she flipped through family photos and held back tears. “We all had plans, dreams, goals and that included my mother. They stole our mother from us, all those dreams are gone now.”
Nour, another of Hala's daughters who lives in Rafah, said she had begged her mother for weeks to escape, but she refused as she worried how she and the rest of the family would survive the journey south , as reports of evacuation areas threatened to strike. Nour fled after the Israeli military dropped leaflets in mid-October urging Gaza City residents to evacuate to the south.
We all had plans, dreams, goals and that included my mother. They stole our mother from us, all those dreams are gone now.”
Sara Khreis
By the time the rest of the family decided to evacuate on November 12, the fighting had already become relentless. But Sara said her mother seemed calm. While everyone set off and packed up their things, she quietly read the Koran. “She said if we were lucky enough to be part of this world, we would live. And if we die, we are martyrs,” Mohammad recalled.
As they took to the streets, there was uncertainty about which direction to go, as Israeli forces were stationed around the neighborhood. At the intersection, some members of the group said a soldier waved them toward the Palestine Stadium, but Mohammad wasn't sure. “So I started calling my mother, 'Come here, come here,' but she didn't listen and went to meet her fate,” Mohammad said, pausing to take a deep breath. “There were shots fired and she fell to the ground. I was shocked. I stood there frozen, not understanding what had happened.”
He ran to Hala, who had a gaping gunshot wound in her chest, and called for others to help him carry her off the street. But they were afraid of the Israeli tanks, which Mohammad said he saw right in front of the group to the south; There were also Israeli troops in the west, as satellite images showed. His father and a neighbor rushed to his side and dragged Hala back to their house, where they tried in vain to revive her.
Khreis family
Tayem, right, with his mother Heba, left, and grandmother Hala, in the middle, whom the children called Teta. “Honestly Teta, God bless her soul, she was the good luck charm for the children… they lost a treasure in their lives,” Heba said. “When I meet him (Tayem), I don’t know how I will explain that there is no more Teta.”
Hala's grandson Tayem was missing in the turmoil. At first, his mother Heba, standing at the back of the crowd, believed her son had been shot next to Hala. But when he was no longer on the ground and they couldn't find him, she panicked. Heba and her husband, Youssuf Abdel A'atti, ran up and down the street asking people if they had seen Tayem, if they had seen a small child.
“His mother started asking me, 'Where is Tayem, where is Tayem?' And no one knows where Tayem is. We tried everything and called everyone, at that time my mother-in-law was a martyr, so we wanted to calm down, to at least know where Tayem is,” Abdel A'atti said.
I felt like I was in a nightmare, until now I feel like I'm still in denial about the whole thing, I'm still waiting for my mom to message in the group chat to check on us: “How are you guys?” Girls?” What’s new? What have you done today?'”
Sara Khreis
It was only hours later, when the family was at home mourning Hala, that someone called to say that Tayem had traveled further south with a group of acquaintances – a small consolation in the face of the horror. Heba and her husband are still waiting to be reunited with their son, who recently celebrated his fifth birthday without her. He is now with his uncle Mohammad in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
“I'm worried about him. Imagine the constant shelling and they claim these areas are safe. And now he is supposed to be in the safest area and every day we hear that there are attacks, shelling and targeting in Rafah,” Heba said. “His birthday fell during the war and he turned five and I haven't seen him… his younger brother asks about Tayem every day: 'Where is Tayem?' Where's Teta?',” using a nickname for his grandmother.
The family later buried Hala in front of their house in a small sandy alley. They hope to return after the war to give her a proper burial and are calling for an investigation into her murder.
Khreis family
A photo Sara took of her mother on the family property. “When I look at her pictures, I feel like she is with me,” Sara said. “Until this moment, I'm still waiting for her to message me to check in on me and see how I'm doing.”
“I felt like I was in a nightmare, until now I feel like I'm still in denial about the whole thing, I'm still waiting for my mom to message in the group chat to check on us: 'How's it going you girls?' ? What's new? What did you do today?'” Sara said.
She wants the world to know who her mother was: a devoted grandmother, a mother who still made sandwiches for Sara to take to college for lunch, a retired teacher who was loved by her students. “My mother was very loving, caring and generous… she had many amazing qualities. I want to be just like her.”
CNN's Scott McWhinnie and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed to this report.