Bahaa Masalmeh planned to shower his young wife with gifts on her upcoming 21st birthday, which he had been planning for several weeks.

But on January 15, Ahed, mother of a six-month-old daughter, was shot dead by Israeli forces during an attack Attack on the city from Dura near Hebron in the southern West Bank. She was at her brother-in-law’s house at the time, waiting at a window for her husband to arrive.

The couple had only been married for 15 months, but Masalmeh said his wife left him the best memories and gave him the “best days” of his life. Ahed was an eager learner who was loved by “everyone,” he said—her cheerful soul and thirst for life were infectious.

“She was the love of my life,” he told Al Jazeera. “She was the epitome of everything good in life.”

Now he has to raise their daughter Ayloul without her.

Masalmeh had dropped Ahed off at his brother Shadi’s house that morning to prepare for another family celebration. There she met with her husband’s other siblings and father to help prepare the house for Shadi’s wedding.

Her last words to her husband were, “Don’t I look as pretty as a full moon?”

‘In a dream’

A few hours later Masalmeh came back with food for everyone. He saw Ahed peering out of the second floor window and, in her usual humorous way, telling him to hurry up because she was hungry.

However, just seconds later, Masalmeh heard some young men in the neighborhood shouting to him that Israeli soldiers had entered the area and were approaching Shadi’s house.

“All I could hear back then were the sounds of live fire and bombs,” Masalmeh said. “I ran upstairs and my sisters were screaming and wailing. Then I saw Ahed lying on the ground, in a pool of her own blood.”

Masalmeh believed he was “in a dream” and for a moment he thought Ahed was playing “one of her pranks.”

But she had just been shot in the head with two bullets.

“I approached Ahed and the first thing I saw were her eyes looking at me. She smiled,” he said.

Meanwhile, his father tried to call an ambulance. Masalmeh wanted to run for help, but he couldn’t leave the house because Israeli soldiers were stationed right outside. Eventually Ahed bled to death. Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Gaza Strip also accuse Israeli forces of frequently preventing ambulances and medics from evacuating the sick and wounded in a timely manner.

Tahani Masalmeh, Bahaa’s sister, was with Ahed when she was shot.

“No words can describe what happened to us,” the 25-year-old told Al Jazeera.

Before the incident, she said, her sister-in-law suddenly – and to her strangely – brought up the topic of death and farewell.

“Ahed told me to protect her daughter Ayloul and always keep an eye on her as if she were my own child. That was before there was an incursion,” Tahani said.

“I was surprised by her words and thought she was joking, like she always does.”

Tahani said she vividly remembered Ahed bleeding to death for about “50 minutes” before she took her last breath.

‘Big dreams’

Ahed’s sister Sumoud, 30, who lives in Ramallah, said she was shocked to learn her sister had been killed.

“The journey from Ramallah to Hebron would normally take two hours. But after the war on Gaza and the crackdown on Palestinians at checkpoints, it took me six hours to reach Ahed,” she told Al Jazeera.

Sumoud described her younger sister as “her first baby” and insisted she would make it to her funeral procession.

The Israeli army has intensified its attacks on towns and villages in the occupied West Bank.

Hundreds of people were there killed According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association, more than 6,330 people were arrested.

Ahed had “big dreams,” said her husband Masalmeh. The university student planned to study primary school after graduating and juggle her role as a mother to a young child.

The couple had just started a small online business together and he wanted to help with deliveries.

“She told me we would be successful and grow our business. I just wanted to support her the way she needed,” Masalmeh said.

Masalmeh sees a lot of Ahed in his daughter, especially in the way she laughs, smiles and plays.

“I plan to fulfill Ahed’s dreams for Ayloul,” he said. “She’s going to grow up and become a doctor, the best doctor in the world.”