Monday was the fortieth day since an Israeli sniper fatally shot 17-year-old Nadim Siam Nuwara near Ofer military prison in Beitunia in the occupied West Bank.

This brutal end to a young life was caught on security cameras and by CNN, along with the fatal shooting of Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, 16, and the serious wounding of 15-year-old Muhammad al-Azzeh. Human Rights Watch called the shootings an “apparent war crime.”

Daniel Nuwara holds a portrait of his slain brother, Nadim.

Following Muslim tradition, a commemoration was held at which Nadim’s father and mother spoke. The video above is of his mother’s brief address. A translation is below:

Nadim, my son. You came into the world at seven months and you left the world at seventeen. A despair I do not know what to call. I am still in the depths of the silence that overcame us when I heard the news of your death. Your too quick departure made me cry. That despicable Israeli sniper did not let you tarry – that enemy of God, that enemy the prophets and of humanity. You parted with the world as a martyr. Oh grief and anguish of time. Your departure – who can believe it? No one wants to believe your rapid departure. I feel that reality is not being truthful to me. Just yesterday you filled our hearts with your soft words and gentle smile. And now all of this is absent. There lies nothing before me except to scream out that my heart has been torn to pieces. Your father’s grief shook the Earth despite his apparent calm. This manly grief shook my soul. But couldn’t you have waited a little bit, so I could speak to you or say goodbye? Were you in so much of a hurry? Or were you in a hurry to heaven? And I say, blessed is He who possesses sovereignty and who created death. Oh Heavens wipe my tears and ease my pain. Nadim, the news of your death was like a lightening bolt at noon. It was like the sun set, the setting of your tender youth. You disappeared from before our eyes. I cannot stop crying, I miss you so much my son … The angels may be happy that you have left this world, but what comforts me is knowing that you are with the Most Merciful. We belong to God and to God we will return. Thank you.

Israel has held no one accountable for the shootings of Nadim Nuwara, Muhammad Abu al-Thahir and thousands of other Palestinians killed and maimed by occupation forces.

Siam Nuwara, Nadim’s father, recently launched a petition accompanied by his own moving message urging the US and EU not to grant visas to his son’s killers.

Photograph of Daniel Nuwara courtesy of the Nuwara family.