I saw a drone suddenly descend towards me. My heart started pounding and I thought, ‘Is this the end of my life?’

The 21-year-old Faraj, who was also finishing her degree in radio and TV, had worked with Khalil before after the reporter discovered her work on social media.

The pair traveled to the village of al-Tiri on April 22, accompanied by Ali Nabil Bazzi, a 27-year-old municipal official from Bint Jbeil, and Mohammed Hourani, 37, a friend of the mayor. They had met by chance earlier at Tebnine governmental hospital, which people considered relatively safe.

Drone Attack

Faraj did not hear the missile coming, only Khalil's scream and seeing the car in front of them burst into flames. As they got out of their car, Faraj approached the burning vehicle hoping to help Bazzi. "I do not know how I managed to stay so calm," she recalled. "The only thing I could think was: if I come closer, I will be able to see Ali. Maybe I will be able to pull him out."

Then drones appeared, hovering terrifyingly close to Faraj's face. "My heart started pounding in a terrifying way. The drone started coming very close to my face. I tried to cover my face, but whenever I did, it would fly back up," she said. Emergency services repeatedly assured help was coming, which Faraj described as "like an anaesthetic" that numbed the reality of no rescue.

Trapped Under Rubble

When paramedics advised them to return up the road as ambulances couldn't reach them, their car was struck by another missile. Khalil wrapped her arms around Faraj as they were thrown backward. They took shelter in a nearby house, where Khalil was visibly injured. Faraj sent her sister a last message: "There's no hope left. Forgive me."

As Faraj watched the road from inside, a drone descended toward her. "It had been high up and suddenly it came down. The way it descended was terrifying. My heart stopped," she remembered. After another missile strike, Faraj found herself trapped under rubble, barely able to breathe. "I couldn't bear the weight. It felt like something was pushing me down, crushing me."

A paramedic reached her and pulled her free as drones continued to circle. In the ambulance, she repeatedly mistook the vehicle's sounds for drones. At the hospital, she learned Khalil had died about an hour before paramedics could return to the area. The Israeli military claimed they had identified saboteurs violating the ceasefire, while human rights groups called it a war crime.

Aftermath

Today, Faraj struggles with physical injuries including a limp that makes climbing stairs difficult. "I was always on the move. I lost that," she said. She also suffers from psychological trauma, waking at night screaming and being triggered by sounds of drones and warplanes. The image of Hourani's body after the first attack haunts her: "His head was turned towards me. His eyes open and looking at me. That is something I will never get out of my head."