A 30-year-old from Jabalya R.C., Hasunah recounted how his entire family was killed while sheltering in a Rafah warehouse, after repeatedly being displaced:
Before the war, I lived with my parents Fawzi and Suzan, my brother Karam, his wife Amuna and their five-year-old twin daughters Suzan and Sidra, and my unmarried brother Muhammad.
On the third day of the war, there was heavy gunfire and bombing in our area. We hid in the stairwell from noon until evening. Those were difficult, terrifying hours. The next day, when the shooting subsided, we decided to leave home and moved to the house of my uncle, Rafiq Hasunah, in the neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa in Gaza City. But that day there was shooting and bombing in the neighborhood of a-Rimal and near Tel al-Hawa, lasting until the early morning. We didn’t sleep a wink that night, and it was even scarier than at home.
The next day, we moved to my sister’s house in a tower on a-Sahabah Street in Gaza City. We stayed with her for three days. On the third day, the Israeli military bombed two floors of the building. We went back to my uncle’s house and stayed there for two days. On the second day, a nearby house was bombed, damaging the walls and shattering the windows in my uncle’s house. Some people in the family were lightly injured by glass splinters. We left again, and this time went to friends in the central Gaza Strip. We stayed there for only one night, because there was bombing and shooting there, too.
From there, we moved to the house of my uncle, Fares Hasunah, near the a-Zahraa Towers in the city of a-Zahraa. But that night, the towers were bombed and completely destroyed. We spent the whole night hiding under the stairs. We stayed there for a month, watching a-Zahraa turn into a ghost town around us. Then more towers were shelled in the area and one of the shells hit my uncle’s house. Part of a wall fell on my back and injured me.
On 5 November 2023, we left my uncle’s house waving a white flag, and went to a-Nuseirat. From there, we moved to another uncle’s house on Sharab Street in Khan Yunis, and stayed there until 9 December. Then we left, because the area was bombed and the house was damaged. We felt that Khan Yunis was dangerous and moved to Rafah. We wanted to rent a house, an apartment or even a warehouse, anywhere we could sleep, but we found nothing and had to sleep in our car. My father and mother, my brother’s wife Amuna and their daughters all slept in the car, and my brothers and I spent night on the pavement. We stayed like that for two days, until we found a warehouse for rent for 2,000 shekels (~USD 545) a month and took it. It wasn’t fit for living and there was no water or electricity, so we kept on looking for something better. We didn't find anything.
We stayed in the warehouse for two months, until rumors started about the invasion of Rafah and we decided to move to Deir al-Balah. We planned to set out on 12 February 2024. The day before that, I went with my cousin Musa Ziyadah to the area of al-Mawasi, to buy a tent we could pitch in Deir al-Balah. It took us a long time to find one, and eventually we bought a tent for 3,200 shekels (~USD 870). It was already late, so I stayed over at my cousin's place. I agreed with my father that the next morning they would pick me up and we’d go together to Deir al-Balah.
At 1:45 A.M., I was woken by bombing and gunfire. Around 2:30, I heard from journalists I know that the military had bombed the warehouse we were living in. I later learned the target was the home of the warehouse owner, and that the Hamza Mosque was also slightly damaged. I tried to call my family, but their phones were off. I left on foot and walked to Rafah like a madman together with my cousin. Along the way, there was firing from planes. We understood they’d been taken to Abu Yusef a-Najar Hospital and walked all the way there, about 10 kilometers.
When we got to the hospital, I saw body bags labeled "Anonymous – Hamza Mosque." I opened the first bag and found body parts I couldn't identify. I opened another bag and another, and barely managed to identify my father, my brother Muhammad, and the girls. I don't think all the bodies were there. I tried to ask, but the paramedics said that's all they found.
Later, I went to the warehouse and found parts of the missile that struck it. There were more body parts there. I gathered them and took them to the hospital. From there, we went to the cemetery and buried them all.
Since then, I've been alone in the world. I lost my family. I have no home and no future. I cry every day. I go to sleep alone and wake up lonely and lost. I came back from Turkey a month before the war started because of my family. My mother really wanted me to get married. We hoped the war would end and we’d go back to our lives, but they killed my mother, my father and everyone else in my family. They killed everyone. That's how I became an orphan, alone. My life is black now. I don't think I'll ever get over the trauma.
* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Muhammad Sabah on 29 February 2024