Salam Mema’s Facebook page offered a window into motherhood and pride. A photo she posted in July showed her sons dressed in beige suits alongside her young daughter, who was wearing a white dress and flowers in her hair. “They are a part of my soul,” she wrote.
Mema, 32, was a freelance journalist and member of the Women Journalists Committee in Gaza. Her friend Nisreen Razayne told The Post she was “an angel,” a loving mother and a supportive colleague.
An Israeli airstrike on Mema’s home in the Jabalya refugee camp killed her and members of her family last week, according to Razayne and the Coalition for Women in Journalism. Mema had been alive, trapped under the rubble, but she could not be reached in time, Razayne said.
About three days later, on Oct. 13, Mema’s body was recovered along with that of her 7-year-old son, Hadi, her friend said. Mema’s husband and brother-in-law were also killed, she said. Her 5-year-old son, Ali, was rescued from under the wreckage, but her daughter, 3-year-old Sham, remained missing, the coalition said.
“She was not a military person to kill,” Razayne said. “My mind can’t comprehend anymore.”
Ellen Francis, Claire Parker, Heba Farouk and Noga Tarnopolsky contributed to this report.