A painful family journey across Gaza over two years

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip (AP) – Fatigue, despair and anger are shattering Neman Abujarad. once again, 11th timehe and his family are forced to move uprooting the Gaza Strip.

“It’s an update of torture. We’re not being kicked out. We’re dying,” Nehman said last week that his family packed Gaza city property and tents to escape the escalation of Israeli artillery fire. Before the planned city invasion.

The next day they unpacked in the south Gaza of barren old farmland outside Khan Yunis city, and they don’t know where they will find food and water now.

This is Abujarad’s life nearly two years agoA few days after fleeing far north of Gaza Israel launched an onslaught On October 7th, 2023, in response to Hamas’ attack. Like countless Palestinian families, they fled Gaza and back lengths, forcing them to move every few months as Israel attacks new shelters. The Associated Press records much of their journey.

During the ceasefire that began in January, they had A bittersweet return To them The house, it was damaged but still standing. But within two months Israel has broken the ceasefireand Abujarad I had to take myself away.

With each movement, Nehruman and his wife Majda try to save Stability of six daughters And their two-year-old granddaughter, in the misery of tent life. The youngest is 8 years old Lana. My eldest son is in his 20s and is married in Balsam.

However, the sense of futile becomes heavy. There is no end, and Neman fears it will get worse.

“It’s dark to come,” he said. “We may be exiled (from Gaza). We may die… You feel like death surrounds you.

It’s been upgraded again

“It’s getting worse for the girls. It’s hard to change every time you get used to something,” Majida said.

Since May, the family shelter has been a tent in Gaza city. It wasn’t easy, but at least they got to know the neighborhood and their neighbors and figure out where to get water and medical care.

Their daughters could see their friends even before the war. Another family in the building next door had their daughter Sarah use the internet to study for an online high school class. Girls have to download books on their mobile phones and study, or do.

Food was more difficult as a limit to Israeli aid. I pushed Gaza city into starvation. Nehruman joined hundreds of other people waiting for the aid truck to enter from Israel. That was dangerous. Israeli forces regularly fired at the crowds, and Neman saw people being killed and wounded, Majda said. But he sometimes came back with food.

A few weeks ago they found Lana’s school. “She was very excited. Her life would have some degree of regularity,” Majda said.

However, Israel has ordered the population to evacuate, preparing a new attack to seize Gaza city, which it said was intended to dismantle Hamas, dismantle hostages and take security controls on the strip. The bombing is approaching. One strike levelled the apartment tower a block away and sent rap shots stabbing Abujarad’s tent. Another person destroyed a house across the street and killed a member of the family sitting outside, Nehman said.

Lana only attended a three-day class. But that was when I went. Last Thursday they joined the growing departure of Palestinians fleeing south.

Emphasises the tears of the family

The day after she was dressed in her pink pajamas, leaning against her father in a new camp, Lana explains that her best friends, Shila and Judi, had said goodbye to Gaza City. They hugged her and told her she loved her – and they were crying, Lana said.

“But I didn’t cry,” she firmly added. “I don’t cry at all. I don’t feel sad.”

Majida and Nehruman are worried about Rana. Their other daughters had the foundation of a normal life. However, Rana was only six when Israeli campaign overturned her life.

“She gains consciousness in the midst of war, artillery fire in the tents and living,” Majida said.

Lana is stubborn and panicked.

“There’s something my sisters have put up with not holding back,” Lana said. She cannot tolerate the discomfort of life in a tent. You must use a makeshift bathroom. “Sit down and read, I can’t be comfortable,” she said.

Over the course of months, everything boils the family – boredom, lack of privacy, bringing in water, gatherings of fire, exploring food, cleaning tents daily struggles. Behind it is a dark thought.

Packed together in a tent, girls sometimes fight and fight.

“We were a family of models with understanding and loving,” Nehman said. “I never imagined we would reach this point. I’m worried that our families will fragment from all the pressure.”

“In the desert”

The latest moves have exhausted the little money they had. I bought hundreds of dollars, bought a new tent, and rented a truck to carry my belongings.

It also stripped them of everything they could endure life. The new camp is located on barren stains and the spread of fields. There is no market nearby and there is no school. You will need to walk 2 km (1.2 miles) to get an internet connection. They are surrounded by strangers.

“We live in the desert,” Nayman said.

On Friday morning, their daughters walked over a kilometer (half a mile) to catch up with the water truck passing by. It ran out before they could fill all the plastic jugs.

The family spent the day cleaning up the land area and gathered two tents. One for the family and the other for Neman’s younger sister. As they worked, Israeli strikes rang out in the distance. They saw black smoke rising above Karn Eunice. By the end of the day, exhausted, Nehruman still had to dig the toilet and set up the bathroom.

The area was a closed Israeli military zone until a few weeks ago when Israel announced it had evacuated. Israel’s military status is not far away. They can see the tanks coming and going.

“It’s not safe here,” Nehman said.

Majida tried to focus on practicality.

If one day the water truck started to approach, she said girls wouldn’t have to walk far and didn’t have to complain. It will start to create a daily routine where they set aside the corner for the kitchen and where they can cook and do the laundry.

“The more details about daily life, the more comfortable we will feel,” Majda said.

“Things will get better,” she said again and again.

They may have to move again

Four days later, on Tuesday, a voice message from Ne’man came to the AP.

“We can’t sit here and eat,” he said. They have little money to buy food. The aid has not reached them.

What’s even worse, a man who claimed to be the owner of the land came and was supported by an armed man, demanding rent and leave. ne’man can’t afford rent. He cannot afford to pay for the travel, but he may not have an option.

“I’ll die of starvation soon,” he said. “For two years, all our energy was released physically, mentally and economically. We can’t stand it any further.”

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Keith reported from Cairo.