A 38-year-old married father of a three year-old, two year-old twins, and an eight-month-old baby, from Beit Hanoun
On Sunday, 7 August 2022, at around 6:00 P.M., while the whole family was sitting in the yard, the power suddenly went out, and then there was an explosion with an intensity that is hard to describe. An Israeli plane bombed our house. Everything filled up with smoke, and a fire broke out. Glass and shards of metal flew in the air in all directions. It was very scary, and we all went into shock.
A few minutes later, a firetruck and ambulance arrived, and they took us to the hospital in Beit Hanoun. It wasn’t until I’d arrived at the hospital that I realized my father, Musa (75), had been left trapped under the rubble. I left the hospital and quickly returned to try and rescue him from there. We managed to rescue him, but his whole body was full of shrapnel. My wife Rawyah (39), who was pregnant at the time with our daughter Hilana, sustained light injuries to her abdomen. Thank God, her condition was stable, and the birth went smoothly. My father and wife have both recovered since then.
All that’s left of our house is a pile of sand and rocks. There’s nowhere to go back to. Everything we had in it has been destroyed too. The only things left are the clothes we were wearing that day. I have lived in that home since I was 17 years old, and my whole family had lived there for over 20 years. I owned half of the house, and my father’s two wives, ‘Ayidah (47) and ‘Aishah (57), owned the other half.
Immediately after the bombing, my wife and I stayed with our children in the homes of relatives or friends, each week in a different house. Afterward, we rented an apartment in Beit Hanoun for 500 NIS [~135 USD] a month, and after about six months, we received a grant for 1,200 USD from UNRWA to cover part of the rent and 500 USD more for new furniture. This helped me to pay back debts that had accumulated since the bombing and buy the children some clothes. My father got a similar grant too, which allowed him to rent two apartments for his two wives and their children.
Our home has still not been rebuilt. It’s hard for us to keep up with rent payments, especially because we previously had a house of our own. I hope we’ll be able to rebuild it and live in it. Since it was destroyed, I feel like a refugee who keeps the key to his lost house. It is as if we suffered another Nakba. I’m always stressed and depressed. I hardly go out of the house and don’t want to see anyone. I cut off contact with my closest friends.
All I think about is rebuilding our home. It’s the only thing I care about. We had a happy life in that house. It was spacious, and we had a garden where we spent a lot of time with family and friends.
* Testimony given to B'Tselem Field Researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 3 April 2023.
Read more testimonies of residents of the Gaza Strip whose homes were damaged in Israeli strikes in August 2022 or May 2023:
