Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Every morning, Mahmoud Khalla goes to the nearby cemetery to visit the graves of the family members he lost during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. He has held on to this morning routine in the months since he buried them, imagining his family is still around. For Mahmoud, 40, the cemetery is the resting place of some of the people he has loved the most in his life.
His wife, his three children, his parents, his two brothers and their families, his sister and her children, and other relatives had all gathered in their family home in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on December 21, 2023. An Israeli strike then targeted the five-storey family home, destroying the building and killing all 39 people inside. Mahmoud left his home shortly before it hit and is the only one left in his family.
Mahmoud remembers that day with heartache. Israeli tanks had surrounded the area near the house in Jabalia, northern Gaza, making it dangerous for people to move around. Food was already scarce due to the ongoing Israeli siege.
In the evening, Mahmoud left the house in search of provisions to feed his family. But I pulled myself together. With the help of a few neighbours who were still in the area, we tried to rescue anyone who might be under the rubble.” Israeli air attacks, quadcopters and surveillance aircraft continued to target the area.
It made it impossible for Mahmoud and his neighbours to search for survivors. With this sense of helplessness, he imagined that some of his family might still be alive under the rubble, waiting to be rescued. He felt as though he had died a thousand times that night.
The following morning, he returned to the site and called out to his family members who might be beneath the ruined home. Nobody answered, and it was at this moment he realised he had lost nearly every person he loved. It was impossible for us to pull anyone out,” he said.
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