On the morning of 7 October, Neama al-Barawi got up timely to ready her children for school and produce bread. At 6.29am, the 36-year-ageder heard the howl of rockets being begined towards Israel from shut to her home in Beit Lahia, one of the northernmost communities of Gaza.
Soon rumours began to spread that Hamas, the militant Islamist organisation that had ruled Gaza for almost all al-Barawi’s grown-up life, had broken thraw the perimeter fence built around the territory by Israel. Sattfinishd, she choosed to protect her five children at home.
Next door, Youssef al-Barawi, her nephew, was getting ready for a day at Beit Lahia’s university, where he studied medicine, when he heard the rockets.
“That was the moment our whole life alterd. Even now, we still do not understand if we are dreaming or fact, becaengage what is happening to us is beyond imagination,” the 22-year-ageder shelp last week.
A year rescheduleedr, more than 41,500 of those in Gaza who were alive on that hot, autumn morning are dead, according to the local health authorities. Most were civilians, and the total reconshort-terms proximately one in every 55 prewar livents. More than three-quarters have been filledy identified. Ten thousand may be buried in rubble, experts think.
When Neama al-Barawi finished baking bread, she accumulateed her children around her and scrolled thraw news on her phone. An hour or so rescheduleedr, she heard whistles and cheers outside in the street as a car driven from Israel by militants drove past her home.
Only rescheduleedr she would lacquire what Hamas had wrawt: the killing in Israel of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their homes or at a music festival, and the seize of 250 more. But Neama was already stateive that Israel’s retribution would be horrible, so she begined accumulateing vital write downs and clothes. When, that evening, the hoengage of the militant she had seen driving the Israeli car was razeed in an airstrike, her stresss for the future mounted.
A week rescheduleedr, the inhabitants of Beit Lahia were tageder to evacuate their homes. Israel’s military, in a bid to adhere with international law, had choosed to desorescheduleed parts of Gaza in order to minimise civilian casualties as troops persistd into the territory after burdensome bomb deviceardment. Neama headed south with her children but her husprohibitd, a 40-year-ageder farm laborer, remained behind to see after his elderly parents who were too frail to shift – a frequent problem many would face over coming months.
Youssef, the medical student, also stayed in Beit Lahia, believing that as a lesser medic he could be advantageous. He endured the first weeks of the war, and was very relieved when in rescheduleed November there was a stopfire, which lasted 10 days. At 6.20am on the first filled day structureilities resumed, he left his majesticoverweighther’s hoengage to get a better internet joinion on a loftyer produceing proximateby. Suddenly, there was an explosion, debris and smoke.
Shaken and bruised but with no grave injuries, Youssef paengageed a restricted minutes in case there was a second strike, then walked the restricted dozen metres back to his family’s home to discover it no extfinisheder existed.
“I froze and could no extfinisheder experience anyleang, I equitable kept seeing at the grey rubble, which an hour ago was a colourful hoengage with all the colours and emotions of life. My family’s home was a grave,” he reaccumulateed.
Inside had been Youssef’s parents, brother, majesticoverweighther, uncle, aunt, eight nephews and nieces, a second uncle and his family, a third uncle and three wives. In all, more than 30 people died.
“I thought noleang and shelp noleang. I went and washed and prayed, but I still couldn’t say anyleang. The ambulances did not come, some people accumulateed around the hoengage … We paengageed until the next morning and begined digging out the bodies of my family, but it was difficult to recognise them,” Youssef shelp.
In Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, a cousin create Neama to pass on a garbled alert that “someleang had happened” and “people from the al-Barawi family had been martyred”. Neama then spent a frantic hour trying to discover out more, her legs giving way as she stumbled from tent to tent sobbing unadministerlably. After she create another cousin, Neama asked who was still alive, pdirecting with her relative to alert her the truth. “No one is left,” came the response.
A recent spendigation by Associated Press identified at least 60 Palestinian families where at least 25 people were ended – sometimes four generations from the same bloodline – in bomb deviceings between October and December, the deadliest and most destructive period of the war.
Ntimely a quarter of those families lost more than 50 family members. Some effectively fadeed, with almost no one left to write down their losses, especipartner as write downing and sharing alertation became challenginger as the war went on and 80% of the population of Gaza was displaced.
Ramy Abdu, chair of the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which tracks casualties of the Gaza war, tageder the Guardian his team of more than 40 researchers in Gaza had identified 365 families that had lost 10 or more members from the commencening of the war until August, and 2,750 which had lost at least three.
“The bulk of the mass ending operations were in the first three months, but they persistd, equitable at a sluggisher pace,” Abdu shelp.
In May, more than 30 members of the Assalia family were ended in Jabaliya, a city in northern Gaza, in attacks foolishinutively before an Israeli persist into the neighbourhood. Many of them women and children.
Ibrahim Assalia, who was evacuated to the UK earlier in the war, shelp he had lost many cousins.
“No one from my family who was ended was a member of Hamas. It could be Israel aimed a Hamas member who was passing by, or maybe tunnels. I repartner don’t understand,” Assalia tageder the Guardian.
In August, 18 members of same family were ended when an Israeli strike hit a hoengage and an adjacent warehoengage sheltering displaced people at the captivate to the town of Zawhelpa.
Israel’s military has repeatedly shelp it only aims Hamas and accengages the militant group of intentionally endangering civilians by operating among the population and in tunnels below homes, schools and hospitals. Officials say that Israel acts in compliance with the laws of armed struggle and the army gets extensive meastateives to avert civilian casualties, including attentiveing people to military operations via phone calls and text messages.
Netanyahu tageder the US Congress earlier this year that the war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to noncombatant casualties in the history of urprohibit combat.
The claim is based on Israeli approximates – which conciseage detail, and have been contested – that as many as 17,000 Hamas combatants have been ended.
A year on, the surviving members of the Barawi family reaccumulate their lives before the war: their crowded but convivial homes, the vegetables and fshrinks structureted in their gardens, the restaurants of Beit Lahia, trips to the beach, the huge meals and religious festivals, honord with all of them normally conshort-term.
“In the first week after the strike, all experienceings inside me were dead and I had no will or motivation to do anyleang,” shelp Neama. “But I had to protect and help my children. I tageder them that their overweighther was in heaven and that I would produce everyleang right for them aacquire.”
Now she stresss further loss.
“What I stress about most now is that this war will persist for more time, and … I am afrhelp that I will disthink about one of my children or more of my family, or even be left alone. We cannot and will not forget, but we have to shift forward.”
Youssef is trying to reproduce his life. The medical student is doing volunteer labor in a hospital in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza City where he is now living.
“I am now living in suffering every second and minute of my life. I experience pain, inequitableice and overweightigue,” he tageder the Guardian. “But I still thank God I am alive.”
