a tale of survival, sort of, from inside gaza;

 

My family and I evacuated from our home in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City the first week of genocide.

After that, we had to evacuate many more times to escape Israeli bombs. We went from family home to family home, from al-Zahra in central Gaza to al-Tuffah in Gaza City, and then to the north and back again.

In November 2023, the first truce was brokered and then broken – by Israel – and my parents, eight brothers and I were again forced to evacuate so-called red zones for green zones, though nowhere was safe from Israeli bombs.

In December of that year, we ended up at my aunt’s home in al-Rimal neighborhood, near Palestine Square, in Gaza City.

On 6 December, Israeli troops invaded al-Rimal, despite its being a “green” zone. We were concerned, but as more and more people from the east, from al-Tuffah and Shujaiya, evacuated to the area, we were reassured and still felt some sense of safety.

This sense of safety quickly collapsed when an Israeli tank stationed itself right outside my aunt’s apartment building. We had no chance to evacuate, so we stayed put..........more........