Gaza families recount two years of war, displacement and hunger

New Straits Times

2 days ago

THE Bakrons and al-Bareems, two families from opposite ends of Gaza, have criss-crossed the rubble-strewn territory many times during 21 months of war, in search of food and shelter from Israeli attacks.
They've sought refuge in the homes of friends and relatives, in school classrooms and in tents, moving frequently as the Israeli military has ordered civilians from one zone to another.
The Bareems, from southern Gaza, have a disabled child who they have pushed in his wheelchair. The Bakrons, from the north, stopped wandering in May after two children of their children were killed in an airstrike.
"Our story is one of displacement, loss of loved ones, hunger, humiliation and loss of hope," said Nizar Bakron, 38, who lost his daughter Olina, 10, and son Rebhi, 8.
The families' experiences illustrate the plight of the 1.9 million Gaza residents — 90 per cent of the population — that the United Nations says have been displaced during the conflict.
Israel's war in Gaza has left much of the enclave in ruins and its people desperate from hunger.
Before the war, Nizar and his wife Amal, four years his junior, had a happy life in Shejaia, a teeming district in the east of Gaza City. Their eldest Adam is 12, the youngest, Youssef, a baby.
Photographs, seen by Reuters, show family parties at home and days at the beach.
"When the Oct 7 attack happened, I knew it wouldn't be something good for us," Nizar said. They left home the next day for Amal's mother's house further south in Zahra, he said.
Palestinians accuse Israel of using the evacuation orders to uproot the population. The family left for Nuseirat, an old refugee camp in central Gaza, where they crammed into an apartment owned by Amal's relatives for five months.
Israel's bombardment was heaviest in the first months of the war. The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll reached 32,845 by the end of March 2024. It has now passed 59,000 people, the ministry says.
In April, Israel issued an evacuation order and the Bakrons went further south to Rafah on the border with Egypt where there was more to eat.
In Rafah, they squeezed into a classroom of a UN school which they shared with Nizar's two brothers and their families — about 20 people. Their savings were quickly disappearing.
On May 25, as most of the family slept, Nizar was sitting outside, talking on the phone, when an airstrike hit and the building collapsed.
He pulled away the debris but Olina and Rebhi were dead. His wife Amal and eldest Adam were injured, and the baby Youssef's leg was broken.
Nizar does not know how they can move again. The family is in mourning and their car was damaged in the strike, he said.
The UN estimates nearly 90 per cent of Gaza's territory is covered by Israeli evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, leaving the population squeezed into two swathes of land where food is increasingly scarce.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday Gaza is suffering from man-made starvation.
Majed al-Bareem, 32, was a teacher before the war in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis. He and his wife Samia, 27, have a 2-year-old son, Samir.
During Israel's initial offensive, which was focused on northern Gaza, the family stayed put. But early in 2024, Israeli forces pushed into Khan Younis and the Bareems fled.
They learned afterwards their home had been destroyed. They went to Rafah with Majed's mother, Alyah, 62 and his three sisters. The youngest, Rafah, 19, has Down Syndrome.
Days before they left Khan Younis, his eldest sister's husband was shot dead. Her son, Joud, 9, is in a wheelchair.
The family is currently in a tent in Mawasi. They can only rarely afford extra rations to supplement the little they get from charitable kitchens.
Last week, Majed went to Bani Suheila hoping to buy some flour. A shell landed nearby, wounding him in the torso with a shrapnel fragment, he said.
"I don't think anyone can bear what we are bearing," he said.
"It has been two years of the war, hunger, killing, destruction and displacement."