Like a Flower sifted through Agony

Like a flower sifted through agony

one lone man sits and searches

for his lost hope

 

Abu Ismail Hammad.

 

This man, he moves mountains

as if their murderous “war” was

no more and no less the mirage of

a madman without a strait jacket

 

and for all the graveyards-of-rubble

he will move, here,

in the Sabra neighborhood, Gaza City,

Palestine

it still seems we are going nowhere.

 

Nor will we.

 

Not until they return to us

our dead mother and father

this wife, Naama Alaa Al-Din Hammad,

sisters, and brothers, all the dead children

 

Ismail, Mohammed, Ghaith, Jana, and Joudi

(all aged between eight and 16 years old),

dead, also, Infant Haifa, nine months in the womb,

and named “after her martyred aunt”

 

and the ghosts of dreams that never died

but watch them, how they still limp, legless

and wounded and with no need of a body,

through desperate and subversive streets.

 

Listen now.

 

Like a small flower sifted through agony

we will meet each other

at the dark end of this never-ending tunnel

always waiting for our long dead children

to come hold our pain in their question-filled eyes

 

for here in a world of furious forgetfulness,

its savagery now floating like a symphony

from another death camp

they are still singing this one tuneless song

“never again”

 

Never Again?

Never ever again?

 

séamas carraher

14 – 19 February, 2026

https://seamascarraher.blogspot.com/

 

Reference & Image

The Image is a screenshot from Dropsite News (“Fair Use”): “Abu Ismail Hammad searches for the remains of his family beneath the rubble of their home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City on January 18, 2026. (Footage provided by Abdel Qader Sabbah.)”

 

Abu Ismail Hammad

“GAZA CITY—For 200 days, Abu Ismail Hammad has been digging beneath his home in Gaza City, painstakingly collecting the remains of his wife and unborn child. He has been using a flour sifter to find their bone fragments hidden in the sand.

 

His entire family was killed just under two months into Israel’s genocidal assault, when an airstrike hit their home in the Sabra neighborhood on December 6, 2023. His five children—Ismail, Mohammed, Ghaith, Jana, and Joudi—aged between eight to 16 years old, were all killed, along with his wife, Naama Alaa Al-Din Hammad. Naama was nine months pregnant with their sixth child, a girl they were planning to name Haifa, after her martyred aunt. His brother, sister-in-law and all of their children were also killed.”

 

In Gaza, One Man Is Searching for the Remains of His Family With a Flour Sifter

Dropsite News – February, 10, 2026

 

Gaza Update

“President Donald Trump declared “the war in Gaza is over” in October 2025. U.S. news outlets believed him. Gaza coverage has dropped to just 1.5% of all stories—the lowest point since October 2023, according to media watchdog FAIR. Israel’s genocidal assault hasn’t stopped.

 

“The “ceasefire” exists only on paper. Israel has violated the agreement over 1,600 times, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Routine killings continue with over 600 Palestinians killed in direct attacks—99% of them civilians. Buildings are destroyed. Aid trucks are blocked. Children are freezing to death. Israeli troops remain where they promised to withdraw. And Western media has moved on.”

Jeremy Scahill, Sharif, and the Drop Site team [Email Newsletter – 17 February, 2026]

 

References (& Context)

“Between 7 October 2023 and 4 February 2026, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH), as reported by OCHA, 71,824 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip and another 171,608 injured.

“UNRWA has recorded 390 colleagues killed in Gaza since the start of the war (309 UNRWA personnel, in addition to 81 persons who were supporting UNRWA activities, as of 27 January 2026.”

UNRWA – Situation Report – 11 February, 2026

6 September, 2025

“GAZA, 6 September 2025 – At least one Palestinian child has been killed every hour on average by Israeli forces in Gaza over nearly 23 months of war, with the number of children killed now surpassing 20,000, Save the Children said.

 

“The latest data released by the Government Media Office in Gaza showed at least 20,000 children – about 2% of Gaza’s child population – have been killed since October 2023.”

Save The Children – September, 2025

 

References (Text)

the mirage of a madman without

a strait jacket

“The Bibi Files is a 2024 American documentary film directed by Alexis Bloom. The film features leaked interrogation footage from the trial of Benjamin Netanyahu. It was screened as a work-in-progress film at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, and had its official world premiere at Doc NYC on November 14, 2024. It was later released on direct-to-consumer film platform Jolt in the United States on December 11, 2024.”

Wikipedia – The Bibi Files

 

its savagery floating like a symphony

in another death camp

“The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz (Mädchenorchester von Auschwitz; lit. “Girls’ Orchestra of Auschwitz”) was formed by order of the SS in 1943, during the Holocaust, in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp in German-occupied Poland.”

Wikipedia – Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz

 

“never again”

“Cultural studies scholars Diana I. Popescu and Tanja Schult write that there was initially a distinction between political prisoners, who invoked “never again” as part of their fight against fascism, and Jewish survivors, whose imperative was to “never forget” their murdered relatives and destroyed communities. They write that the distinction has been blurred in the subsequent decades as the Holocaust was universalised. According to the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 because “the international community vowed never again to allow” the atrocities of World War II, and the Genocide Convention was adopted the same year”

Wikipedia – Never Again

 

Children

UNICEF Reveals Gaza Child Death Toll Since Start of Year and During ‘Ceasefire’

Palestine Chronicle – February 7, 2026

Childhood Under Siege In Gaza | Foreign Correspondent

“For the one million children of Gaza growing up isn’t guaranteed. Since the war began nearly two years ago, more than 18,000 [20,000: February 2026] Palestinian children have passed away.

“All these children just want the war to end so they can live their lives. In the words of a 10-year-old: “There’s no childhood left in Gaza”.

ABC News Sept 25

 

Finally: Hope for the future?

Please, go ask Abu Ismail Hammad, in the ruins of his own history,

in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, Occupied Palestine, (soon to be occupied by The Trump Family Business), where we will, collectively, in the midst of ongoing catastrophe…find hope for the future?

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