A week back I saw a video, shared by a friend, where a Palestinian mother in tears, was saying to her 8 years old son wrapped in white cloths, who was killed by Israeli forces:  

“Forgive me my son, I couldn't protect you. Forgive me for all the times when you demanded something and I couldn't provide. And also, for the times I got angry on you." 

I remembered an elegy composed by Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard (1823 – 1902), “One morn I left him in his bed.” She was an American poet and novelist. She had three children, two of whom died when they were only infants. 

“One morn I left him in his bed” is a very moving poem. 

Where I first read, I’ve no idea but it is in one of my diaries. 

Here it is –

One morn I left him in his bed; 

A moment after someone said, 

‘Your child is dying – he is dead.’ 

We made him ready for his rest, 

Flowers in his hair, and on his breast 

His little hands together prest. 

We sailed by night across the sea; 

So, floating from the world were we, 

Apart from sympathy, we Three. 

The wild sea moaned, the black clouds spread 

Moving shadows on its bed, 

But one of us lay midship dead. 

I saw his coffin sliding down 

The yellow sand in yonder town, 

Where I put on my sorrow’s crown.

And we returned; in this drear place 

Never to see him face to face, 

I thrust aside the living race. 

Mothers, who mourn with me today, 

Oh, understand me, when I say, 

I cannot weep; I cannot pray; 

I gaze upon a hidden store, 

His books, his toys, the clothes he wore, 

And cry, ‘Once more, to me, once more!’ 

Then take, from me, this simple verse, 

That you may know what I rehearse— 

A grief – your and my Universe!

About half of Gaza’s roughly 2 million people currently live in Gaza City. Now Israeli leaders have again vowed to press on with an expanded large-scale offensive on the Gaza city. A few thousand have already left, whereas others say they would not leave, despite the explosions adding that they could not afford to pay for the transportation.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz said that Gaza City would be razed unless Hamas militants agreed to end the war on Israel’s terms and release all the hostages it still holds.

And Hamas said that Israel’s plan to take over Gaza City showed it was not serious about a ceasefire. It said a ceasefire agreement was “the only way to return the hostages”, holding the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responsible for their lives.

A report by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has declared that if a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.

How long mothers of Gaza will keep crying?