Ibrahim Hassouna, 30, a Gaza social media influencer generally known as Kazanova, has the phrase “my mom” tattooed on his wrist in Arabic. Most of his household was killed in a Feb. 12 Israeli army operation to rescue hostages.

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Ibrahim Hassouna, 30, a Gaza social media influencer generally known as Kazanova, has the phrase “my mom” tattooed on his wrist in Arabic. Most of his household was killed in a Feb. 12 Israeli army operation to rescue hostages.

Anas Baba/NPR

This story comprises descriptions of graphic violence.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — You may name him Gaza’s Mr. Congeniality.

Social media influencer Ibrahim Hassouna, 30 — who goes by the nickname Kazanova — spent years constructing his Instagram audience of 440,000 followers by posting feel-good movies about his life within the Gaza Strip. Some would function his mother.

“I tend to spread positive energy,” Hassouna says. “But when the war started, there was no positive energy.”

His darkest hour got here on Feb. 12.

The Israeli army unleashed heavy bombings to supply cowl for commandos throughout a profitable hostage rescue mission. At least 74 Palestinians had been killed in that bombing marketing campaign, based on Gaza well being officers.

Hassouna’s mom, father, brother, sister-in-law and younger nieces and nephew had been amongst them. They had been killed as they slept within the dwelling the place they had been sheltering. It was the one evening Hassouna occurred to sleep over at a pal’s home.

“Now I am by myself,” he says. “Why should I live my life without a family?”

Cheering up his household and followers

In Gaza, younger social media activists have attracted large audiences worldwide, posting photographs of what it is wish to dwell underneath battle.

Before the battle, Hassouna labored as a promoter for eating places and companies, emceeing their occasions and posting movies on Instagram of day by day life in Gaza.

His movies had been all smiles and laughter.

One video he posted exhibits him on a joyride via Gaza City, within the passenger seat of a spacious automotive, with the sunroof open, holding a bouquet of flowers and blasting a track.

The next video he posted is a selfie on the sofa at dwelling: “I clean the bathroom, and do the dishes,” he begins.

“Liar,” his mother, Suzan, says within the background. He laughs.

Those two movies had been from Oct. 6, 2023.

The subsequent day, Hamas attacked Israel, killing round 1,200 folks and taking greater than 250 hostage, based on Israeli figures. Israel started bombing Gaza, killing, to this point, greater than 29,000 Palestinians, based on Gaza well being officers.

Hassouna and his household fled their dwelling in Gaza City, then fled repeatedly, as Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets instructing Palestinians to evacuate farther and farther south for their very own security.

He could not resist posting photographs from the websites of Israeli bombings, however his mother needed him to keep away from hazard. He tried to cheer up his household and his followers on Instagram.

He posted a video of himself making a falafel sandwich for a gaggle of youngsters sitting in a circle on the ground, together with his younger nieces, twins Suzan and Sedra, whom he adored.

“There were no toys to play with,” he says. “I played with them using a pot lid, an empty jar.”

In another video, he places his arm round his mother as he takes her on a stroll to the market.

“We’re here for a change of atmosphere,” he says to the digicam. They purchase two cauliflowers and smile as they hitch a journey on a horse-drawn cart again to the house the place they’re sheltering.

But that was solely the Instagram model of the day.

Off-camera, Hassouna says, it was laborious to benefit from the cauliflower meal. The wartime worth of two cauliflowers was as a lot as what a complete meal used to value. His mother was deflated.

“That day,” says Hassouna, “She said, ‘I won’t go down to the market anymore.'”

The hostage rescue mission

On Feb. 11, his mother texted him: “Come eat chicken.” She’d managed to purchase 4 of them.

“A significant achievement,” Hassouna says, in an overcrowded metropolis the place greater than 1 million displaced Palestinians had been clamoring for a similar restricted provides.

He’d determined to sleep at a pal’s home that evening. So she promised to attend until the subsequent day earlier than getting ready the household’s first rooster meal for the reason that battle started.

“She wanted to sit and gather the family, and for us to be happy,” he says.

At 1:49 a.m. on Feb. 12, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari mentioned in a televised statement, Israeli commandos stormed an condominium in Rafah, safely rescuing two hostages — Fernando Simon Marman, 61, and Luis Har, 70 — after 129 days in Hamas captivity.

At 1:50 a.m., the army carried out a large spherical of airstrikes in Rafah as a diversion, to supply cowl to the forces as they escaped with the hostages, army officers say.

When he heard the information of the bombings, Hassouna rushed again to the place his household had been sheltering.

“The world turned upside down,” he says.

Collecting the shreds of his household

Palestinians examine their destroyed houses after an Israeli air strike killed greater than 60 folks in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 12.

Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post by way of Getty Images

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Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post by way of Getty Images

Palestinians examine their destroyed houses after an Israeli air strike killed greater than 60 folks in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 12.

Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post by way of Getty Images

The particulars are graphic.

He went via physique luggage. One physique was with no head. He acknowledged his dad’s finger.

He appeared within the second bag, and noticed one aspect of his mom’s face. It was the aspect he would see sleeping close to her each evening the place they had been sheltering.

Another bag had items of his brother.

He recognized his little niece Sedra from an earring in a single ear. He recognized little Suzan by a small purse she at all times slept with.

He spent hours on the web site of the strike, amassing his household’s stays.

Lives destroyed

The operation was celebrated in Israel as a uncommon win, with greater than 100 hostages nonetheless believed to be held in Gaza after greater than 4 months of battle.

Hassouna considers the Israeli perspective.

“You wanted to retrieve two elderly prisoners, it’s their right. Aren’t they humans? They’re humans,” Hassouna says. “A child is also a human. Just as you want to recognize the rights of the human whose life you want to save, you destroyed the lives of many people who had nothing to do with the whole war.”

On the day of the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, he reposted a social media video of Palestinian militants driving via an Israeli metropolis, celebrating it.

In hindsight, he criticizes each Hamas’ assault and Israel’s response.

“There were many things that could have been handled more appropriately,” he says.

What his mom taught him

Ibrahim Hassouna, identified by his nickname Kazanova, stands within the graveyard in Rafah, Gaza, the place he buried his mother and father, brother and different relations killed Feb. 12 by Israeli airstrikes.

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Ibrahim Hassouna, identified by his nickname Kazanova, stands within the graveyard in Rafah, Gaza, the place he buried his mother and father, brother and different relations killed Feb. 12 by Israeli airstrikes.

Anas Baba/NPR

On a current wet day, Hassouna sat among the many graves of his household in Rafah.

“I can’t even smell my mother’s smell, hear my father’s voice, check up on my brother, play with the younger ones,” he says. “A nightmare, you can wake up from, but this, you can’t.”

Recently, he filmed himself distributing ingesting water to displaced youngsters in Gaza, to honor the reminiscence of his household.

“The darkness will be in my heart, not on the outside. I will continue to spread happiness, goodness and hope,” he says. “A person relies on one’s inner strength, the innate positive energy that they have.”

It’s one thing he says he discovered from his mother. The phrase “my mom” is tattooed in Arabic on his wrist.

As he stands within the graveyard, a rainbow stretches throughout the sky.

Anas Baba reported from Rafah. Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv. Jawad Rizkallah contributed to this story from Beirut.