The Road from Jabaliya – The Harrowing Details of a Palestinian Family Escaping Israeli Death

Palestinians were forced to evacuate Jabaliya and caput south. (Photo: video grab)

By Noor Alyacoubi – Gaza

Osama and Mahmoud, a begetter and a son, held choky connected their household location successful Jabaliya. The Israeli decease machine, however, was relentless. Leaving their house, years of memories, and a treasured sewing instrumentality behind, the 2 decided to escape. This is their story.

“When I archetypal approached the checkpoint, an Israeli worker yelled astatine me, grabbed my hat, and threw it to the ground,” Mahmoud, 24, recounted the harrowing infinitesimal of his forced displacement from Jabaliya. “I stayed calm. I had to enactment calm, knowing immoderate absorption could endanger my life.”

After implicit 50 days of relentless bombardment, Mahmoud and his father, Osama, yet near their location successful Jabaliya. From the beginning, Osama believed the Israeli military’s eventual extremity was to bare bluish Gaza. 

“He knew we would ne'er beryllium capable to travel back,” Mahmoud said. “And helium refused to marque it casual for them.”

Despite his condemnation to stay, Osama prioritized his family’s safety. 

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On October 7, 2024, conscionable 2 days aft the onslaught began, helium urged his wife, 2 young sons, and aged girl with her 3 children to fly to occidental Gaza City. 

Mahmoud, his eldest son, chose to enactment behind. “I agreed with my younger member that helium would spell with my mother, and I would enactment with my begetter to enactment him,” Mahmoud explained.

As their fourth-floor flat was unsafe, the brace moved to Mahmoud’s grandmother’s abandoned ground-floor apartment, hoping for amended protection. Safety, however, remained retired of reach. 

Bombs fell incessantly, artillery thundered, and stepping extracurricular meant risking decease by sniper oregon quadcopter fire. Supplies dwindled. “We rationed what small nutrient and h2o we had,” Mahmoud said.

Weeks later, Israeli tanks rolled into their neighborhood, forcing them to flee. 

“We moved to different country successful Jabaliya, escaping tanks and enduring changeless bombings,” Mahmoud recalled. 

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Days later, they had to evacuate again, spending a nighttime successful the unfastened acold without blankets, unsure of wherever to go. “Those days were the hardest of my life,” Mahmoud said. “I would autumn dormant wondering if I’d aftermath up alive.”

Eventually, they had nary prime but to permission Jabaliya altogether. “We near everything behind—our home, our belongings, and astir painfully, my father’s sewing machines, which were our livelihood,” Mahmoud said.

At the checkpoint, chaos and humiliation greeted them. Soldiers ordered men to portion wholly for searches, portion women underwent little invasive inspections. “I stood successful enactment with 300 men, naked, holding up my ID,” Mahmoud said.

For six hours, they stood successful the cold, surrounded by tanks and choked by dust. Water was scarce, with 20 liters shared among 300 people. “They destroyed our homes, and present they were stripping america of our humanity,” Mahmoud said.

Some detainees were arbitrarily beaten oregon arrested, portion others were allowed to permission with nothing—not adjacent clothes. 

“At that moment, I thought, ‘This is the end,’” Mahmoud said. But helium and his begetter were among the fewer who passed through. “Walking distant felt similar being calved again,” Mahmoud reflected.

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Abu Mohammed’s Uncertain Fate

Not everyone shared Mahmoud’s fortune. Among those detained was Abu Mohammed, a 60-year-old tailor. 

For weeks, his wife, Umm Mohammed, and their household stayed successful their location adjacent Kamal Adwan Hospital, refusing to leave. “Where could we go?,” Umm Mohammed wondered. “Everywhere successful Gaza is unsafe.”

But arsenic the attacks escalated, their endurance outweighed their fear. Almost 2 months aft the attack, connected a bitter December morning, Umm Mohammed, her 2 younger sons, Mahmoud and Ahmed, her girl Malak, and her daughter-in-law Aya, with her toddler, fled their home. 

Their eldest son, Mohammed, stayed behind. A instrumentality technician astatine Kamal Adwan Hospital, Mohammed felt obligated to attraction for the wounded. “I can’t leave,” helium told his family. They parted successful tears, uncertain if they would conscionable again.

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At the checkpoint, Umm Mohammed watched helplessly arsenic the men were separated from the women. She and the girls passed done but spent hours waiting anxiously for her hubby and sons. 

Eventually, Mahmoud and Ahmed arrived astatine their impermanent structure successful Gaza City, but Abu Mohammed did not. “I didn’t cognize whether to grin due to the fact that my sons were harmless oregon outcry due to the fact that my hubby was taken,” she said.

Three weeks person passed, and Abu Mohammed remains detained. “He has nary governmental ties,” Umm Mohammed insisted. “He’s spent his beingness sewing to enactment us.”

Abu Mohammed is 1 of dozens—if not hundreds—of men detained arbitrarily. Despite the uncertainty, Umm Mohammed clings to hope. “I inactive commune that tomorrow, I’ll aftermath up to perceive him knocking connected the door,” she said.

(The Palestine Chronicle)