In the West Bank, these mothers all have one thing in common: Israel killed their sons

For the past three years, a growing group of Palestinian women has been visiting the homes of families who lost their sons to Israel’s occupation, offering support and solidarity to grieving mothers and sharing their own stories of loss. Known as the Mothers of Martyrs and Prisoners League, the group was founded in early 2021 by Wafaa Jarrar, 50. What began as a handful of mourning women in Jenin refugee camp soon expanded into an effort spanning Jenin and several other cities across the occupied West Bank.

“We would take my car and visit grieving mothers,” Jarrar said in May 2023. “After each visit, the mother we consoled would ask to join us in supporting others. Over time, we decided to formalize our efforts, establishing a league dedicated to psychological and social support.” Jarrar estimates that, in Jenin alone, the group now includes as many as 120 members.

The League’s growth has been slow but steady, fueled by grief and a refusal to let the burden of mourning be carried alone. Yet today, the group is operating under increasingly dangerous and difficult conditions, as Israeli military incursions, road closures, and settler attacks make even the simple act of visiting a grieving family a life-threatening journey.

Jarrar didn’t live to witness the full extent of the League’s expansion. In May 2024, she was violently arrested by Israeli occupation forces during a raid on Jenin and sustained critical injuries to her legs, spine, and lungs when, according to the army, an explosive device hit the military vehicle transporting her — a claim that her family contests.

She was taken to the HaEmek Medical Center in the northern Israeli city of Afula, where both of her legs were amputated. A few days later, she was released and transferred to Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, but in August, she succumbed to her wounds.

“We had no political affiliation, no foreign funding, no organization behind us — and maybe that’s why the mothers welcomed us so warmly, seeing us as part of them,” Jarrar said in an interview with Mondoweiss shortly before her martyrdom. “Over time, more and more mothers wanted to join us, because they knew our only loyalty was to their grief and to Palestine.” 

‘The only thing that unites us is loss’

The League first emerged in Jenin and its refugee camp before gradually expanding to other governorates across the West Bank, including Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Jerusalem. Its mission deeply resonated with mothers throughout the region. 

“During our first visit outside Jenin, my mother and I, along with other mothers, traveled to Nablus to offer condolences to the mother of a martyr,” Zaitouna Jarrar, the daughter of Wafaa, who carried on her mother’s mission after her death, told Mondoweiss. “It was our first activity beyond Jenin. We were warmly welcomed, and many women decided to join us. In this way, the League was no longer confined to a specific region.” 

“The League is not affiliated with any political party, religious group, or ethnic background,” Zaitouna Jarrar added. “It welcomes everyone without exception. The only thing that unites us is loss, nothing else.”

Loss takes many forms for the mothers of martyrs. Some grieve the death of a loved one, while others endure the agony of being cut off from their imprisoned sons under harsh detention conditions. Some remain in limbo, unable to bid them a final farewell, as Israel continues to withhold their sons’ bodies. With these different forms of loss, the League’s visits take on varied meanings and purposes.

“The League carries out various activities to support the families of prisoners and martyrs,” Zaitouna Jarrar explained. “We take part in protests against the inhumane treatment of prisoners and join demonstrations calling for the retrieval of Palestinian martyrs’ bodies withheld by the Israeli authorities. We also visit the families of hunger-striking prisoners. In the early days of the League, we would commemorate each martyr’s anniversary by honoring their virtues and remembering their legacy.”  

One of the League’s activities included visiting the pine trees in “Horsh al-Swaitat,” the local grove in Jenin. They return to it over and over, and each visit is an opportunity to hang the photos of their martyrs on the tree trunks. With each visit, they pause and take a moment to gaze at the photos of their sons. 

‘We grieve and cry together, as if we are one body’

Lubna al-Amouri, 49, from Jenin refugee camp, described her experience with a League visit after her son Jamil al-Amouri, a founder of the Jenin Brigade, was killed during clashes with the Israeli military on May 10, 2021.

“When I learned of my son’s martyrdom, a deep sorrow filled my soul,” Lubna told Mondoweiss. “I couldn’t believe he was gone. I never had the chance to say my final goodbye as his body was still withheld. But then, a visit from the League members who had also lost their sons and were denied their final farewells brought a sense of solidarity. In that moment, I realized I wasn’t alone in my pain. Their visit rekindled a spark of hope in my soul.”

Three years later, the League returned to offer its condolences once again, following the martyrdom of her other son, Ahmad, who was killed by an Israeli drone strike in July 2024 during a raid on Jenin, just two months after his release from Israeli prison.

Like many other mothers, Lubna al-Amouri decided to join the League and become an active member. She traveled between the homes of grieving mothers and shared her story.

“I found my purpose in this League,” al-Amouri said. “It transformed my personal, daily grief over the loss of my sons into a significant social and psychological role. Many mothers are surprised by our visit, especially those from outside Jenin, as they understand the hardships we face due to the Israeli military checkpoints set up between the governorates. We empathize with their experiences of loss and its difficulties. We grieve and cry together, as if we are one body.”

The group’s work is sustained by a small grassroots fund called al-Tal’at — meaning “the visits” — made up of small donations from members themselves. They contribute a few shekels whenever they can, pooling their resources for transportation fees. In times of heavy loss, when funds run low, the women even sell their personal jewelry

Before the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the League had managed to visit nearly every mourning family in Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and the northern Jordan Valley. Visits would involve short expressions of condolence, shared tears, and the symbolic gift of a black scarf embroidered with the Palestinian flag — a reminder that the loss was collective, not individual.

Since October 7, the number of new martyrs in the West Bank has soared dramatically, placing extraordinary pressure on the League. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, at least 984 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers during this period, with thousands more injured, detained, or forcibly displaced. Each loss means another grieving mother — and another call for support that the League strives to answer.

Drawing on collective strength

Dr. Samah Jabr, a psychotherapist and former head of the Mental Health Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, says the Mothers of Martyrs and Prisoners League plays a unique role in providing psychological support in a way that no psychiatrist could. “Mothers who lose their children to political violence carry the unbearable weight of loss and often experience traumatic, prolonged grief,” Dr. Jabr told Mondoweiss. “This is not a normal loss, like the loss of an elderly person who has lived out their life cycle, but rather the sudden loss of a child or young adult who was taken too soon due to their activism or affiliations that are targeted by the occupation.” 

Dr. Jabr elaborated, “In cases of traumatic, prolonged grief, individuals experience hypervigilance, avoidance, isolation, despair, and denial. However, with the League’s support, where groups of women who share the same trauma come together, pain is transformed into social and political action. Despite their ongoing struggles, their efforts help them transcend pain and cope in a healthier way. When women get sufficient support, they can deal with psychological stress in a better way.” 

Sharing her experience with one of the mothers of martyrs, Dr. Jabr recalled, “A mother from Jericho, whose son was a martyr, came to me after being referred due to the worsening of her condition and persistent depression. It was clear to me how much the visit from the League members from Jenin had uplifted her and helped ease the burden of her trauma. According to her, that support was more meaningful than seeing a therapist.”

“When grief is shared, it becomes more meaningful and purposeful,” Dr. Jabr explained. “The League transformed isolated suffering into collective strength.” 

She believes the League provides a space for collective mourning, free from judgment or imposed emotions. It offers a safe space where mothers can openly express themselves, without restrictions, turning personal grief into a collective experience. This contrasts with the usual media portrayal, which often focuses on mothers’ “zaghareed” and joyful cries in front of cameras or interviews with martyrs’ families, expecting them to glorify their loss, something Dr. Jabr criticizes as an unrealistic representation of grief.

Um Udai Azizi, 50, a member of the League’s Nablus branch, reflects on the psychological impact of the League on the women involved, particularly in fostering the collective expression of grief. “Sometimes, when we visit the mother of a martyr, we end up crying more than the mother who has just lost her son,” she shared.

Um Udai is the mother of Muhammad Azizi, who was assassinated by Israeli forces in July 2022, after which the Lions’ Den resistance group was founded in September of that year and claimed him as one of its early founders. “I remember one mother whose son had been martyred over five years ago. She cried deeply when one of the women shared a story about her son’s savings jar and his will to donate it to the poor,” Um Udai said. “She remembered her own son’s jar and burst into tears. We never tell the women not to cry; instead, we transform crying into a collective strength that helps us confront our shared grief together.”

The League after October 7

For many League members, the risks of continuing their have been growing since October 7, with several women having been arrested at checkpoints while traveling to visit mourning families. Others report having their phones confiscated or their homes raided after attending funerals, as Um Udai Azizi recounted. 

“During my house raid in Balata refugee camp in early 2025, the Israeli army directly threatened me because of my involvement in the League,” she said. “They told me to stop causing trouble and stop going on these visits.”

“One time, they broke the photo of my martyred son on the wall and urinated on it to humiliate me, even after his death,” she added. “They want to strip us of everything, even our right to speak.”

In addition to the direct threats, participants also suffer from significant transportation challenges, with nearly 900 Israeli checkpoints and iron gates now scattered throughout the West Bank, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission. Iron gates make up a third of these checkpoints, the majority of which are closed. This has severely limited League members’ ability to move beyond their governorates. Moreover, the siege on Jenin and Tulkarem and their refugee camps has made it impossible for these women to move freely even within their own governorates. In addition to the complete evacuation of the Jenin refugee camp of its residents, and the partial forced evacuation of Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps in Tulkarem. 

“We can’t reach every family anymore,” said Zaitouna Jarrar. “The checkpoints and sieges are suffocating us.”

Now, with entire cities under military lockdown and settler violence reaching record levels, League members have been forced to decentralize their activities.“To overcome the difficulties of movement and the ongoing siege, we have formed smaller groups, distributed by region,” Zaitouna explained. “Now, each city has its own League. Each village has its own League, and each refugee camp has its own League, and so on.”