21 April 2025

Yaroun, Lebanon – A son dug out his elderly mother’s tiny, black shoes from a pile of rubble, which used to be her home. He held the shoes gently, then tenderly kissed their tips.

His mother’s name was Najwa Ghacham, a fiercely independent woman. For a year and three months, Najwa refused to leave her home in the southern Lebanese village of Yaroun, despite heavy Israeli bombardment and fighting around her. 

“She loved her home so much,” her son, Nour Ghacham, 48, told Middle East Eye. “It was clear she cherished it.” 

He pulled out his phone to show a photo of what her home once was. It was two storeys, made from white stones, with terracotta shingles and sky blue shutters. A purple-flowering bush spilt over her front yard gate, and a pine tree sprouted through the pavement, its branches stretching above her roof. 

The mayor and his wife, Laila Tahfa, 53, live next door. Tahfa said she remembered watching Najwa spend hours sweeping her doorstep and adjacent pavement, or caring for her garden. 

“Her home was like a kingdom to her, nothing outside seemed to matter,” Tahfa told MEE. 

She recounted her “lovely memories” with Najwa, whom she said she knew for many years. “At around 70 years old, [Najwa] remained spirited and was always eager to share stories,” she said. 

When the war erupted, Tahfa said they tried to get her leave for her safety, but she always refused. “She would say, ‘I don’t hear any [bombings], I just want to be in my home’,” she said. 

At one point, 28-year-old medic Mohammad Salman, and his team of rescue workers, managed to convince Najwa to leave – but she returned shortly afterwards. 

“I swear to God, she went back walking,” he told MEE in January.