JENIN, Palestine 

With raw emotion and tears, Palestinian child Rafif Abed expressed a heartfelt desire to keep the keys to her family's home destroyed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Kafr Dan as a cherished memento. 

This tradition mirrors the actions of her ancestors, who were forcibly displaced in 1948 and kept their house keys as a symbol of hope for their return.

While surveying the ruins of her home in Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, nine-year-old Rafif asked an Anadolu photographer to help her retrieve the keys from the debris of the house, which was demolished by the Israeli forces on Tuesday.

❝I want to keep it as a memory from home❞

With raw emotion and tears, Palestinian child expresses heartfelt desire to keep the keys to her family's home destroyed by Israeli forces in the West Bank pic.twitter.com/FitNysJDUW

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) June 12, 2024

“They (the Israeli army) bombed our house while we were inside, and after pleas, we were allowed to leave,” Rafif, with tears rolling down her cheeks, told the photographer.

The crying child spontaneously asked the photographer for help in obtaining the keys to her home so she could keep it “as a memory.”

This practice has been common among Palestinians since they were displaced by armed Zionist groups in 1948.

The keys symbolize their steadfastness and determination to return to their homes, even though many of these homes no longer exist in their original form, having been seized, given to Israeli settlers, or demolished and replaced with new buildings.

On Tuesday evening, the Israeli army, supported by helicopters and drones, raided Kafr Dan.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, six Palestinians were killed, including three from the town and three from nearby towns, while others were injured.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip after an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

At least 543 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,200 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio