Sabah Na’im Mustafa al-Deqqes (44), married, mother of 8 and resident of Jabalia refugee camp, north Gaza.

Date: 23 October 2024

When the war broke out in the Gaza Strip on 07 October 2023, we decided to stay and never leave our 2-storey house in Jabalia refugee camp despite Israel’s intense bombardment on the camp and commission of tens of horrendous massacres.  We would daily hear relentless explosions and attacks on houses with tens of families forcibly displaced to the eastern and northern areas of the camp’s center fleeing death and bombardment and overcrowding the camp.

When a humanitarian pause was declared on 24 October 2023, we thought it was a prelude to end the war, so we thought there was no need to evacuate our house elsewhere. However, how wrong we were! Once the pause had ended, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) invaded Jabalia refugee camp for the first time.

On 07 December 2023, IOF advanced towards the camp under heavy air and artillery bombardment. Indiscriminate shells and smoke grenades were raining down on houses, forcing us to evacuate to my family house (‘Atallah Family) on the al-Sahabah Street in al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City.  Despite the perilous journey, we fled the camp on foot under fire through side roads until we miraculously reached the al-Sahabah area.

In mid-December 2023, IOF’s vehicles advanced towards al-Daraj and al-Tofah neighborhoods. The situation was extremely dangerous in al-Sahabah neighborhood, particularly on Yemen Street, where my father’s house is located. Tens of strikes hit residents’ houses, killing and injuring dozens, so we decided to leave along with my family to western Gaza City in al-Sena’ah area.

Following IOF’s withdrawal from Jabalia, I cannot remember what the exact date was, I returned with my family to my house in Jabalia refugee camp to find it partially destroyed as two shells had hit it during the invasion.  We cleaned it and moved in again. We stayed in the house until the second invasion of the camp in March 2024.  Out of nowhere, IOF invaded north Gaza again, particularly Jabalia refugee camp, randomly firing tens of artillery shells and bombs across the camp and amid quadcopters hovering over each street.  Then, leaflets were airdropped ordering all residents in north Gaza to evacuate the camp designating it a combat zone.

We had to seek refuge again in my parents’ house in al-Daraj neighborhood, but with IOF’s withdrawal in mid-April 2024 and end of their military operation in the camp, I came back with my family to my house in Jabalia, but the camp was almost totally destroyed, including our house with severe damage but was still standing.  We repaired whatever we could and moved in again staying there until our last evacuation.

Around noon on 05 October 2024, I was with my family in our house as usual when we suddenly heard noise outside. We could hear gunfire and shells far away, but we did not think at all it was IOF advancing into the camp. We rushed to the street to figure out what was going on and we heard the neighbors saying, “IOF invaded the camp.” So, we went back home and packed our belongings in case of any emergency.  

Fear and panic engulfed the camp and IOF’s vehicles suddenly closed all the camp’s main streets and entrances, taking a grip on the camp and besieging north Gaza. They separated Jabalia refugee camp from all other nearby cities. Despite wanting to, we could not leave our house and were trapped inside as the quadcopters were filling the north Gaza sky and shooting anyone moving in the streets. We heard from our neighbors that many of their relatives had been shot dead when they decided to leave; therefore, we backed off and decided to stay home.

The siege intensified; food and water were running out in the house with none able to leave to bring some due to the dangerous situation outside. Shells and bombs were falling like rain on the camp not knowing where they came from or where they exploded.

Throughout the siege from 05 to 22 October 2024, the sound of shells and bombs did not stop even for a moment as well as tank and drone fire that were targeting streets, rooftops and whoever dared to move.  We had experienced all of that in the previous sieges I mentioned above, but this time it was different as it was more violent and intense.

What is unprecedented in this siege, particularly starting from 20:00, is exploding buildings with booby-trapped robots as we could hear their generator-like sound every night moving and shaking the land.  They exploded houses on top of their residents, and according to what we later learnt and witnessed while leaving the camp, IOF have used these robots to erase entire buildings and neighborhoods in the camp with the residents inside them.

We have lived days that have been the worst and most horrific since the beginning of the war. We were 20 people in the house along with some of my husband’s relatives, who moved to our house.  We were all sitting in the middle of the living room on the ground-floor apartment, not being able to do anything, fearing that the soldiers would know we were there. We could not even move into the apartment fearing the drone fire that we could hear from the apartment. We could not make fire for cooking, and we only ate canned food, grounded thyme and dukka.

On 18 October 2024, my husband went up to the roof to see what was going on the street and check on the water tanks, which were about to run out, trying to figure a way out of the house. However, a shell fell on the house roof, wounding him in his right hand.

At around 15:00 on 20 October 2024, IOF’s warplanes launched a missile at my husband’s uncle house from al-Deqqes family nearby to the northeastern side of our house. The missile directly hit the house on top of its residents, killing all of them and they were 15.  All of them are still trapped under the rubble. Mercifully, we survived death, but the upper floor of the house was destroyed while the ground floor where we were had become almost with no walls.  Stones and debris scattered on us and some of us were pulled out from under concrete pillars.  All of us were wounded in the attack.

Immediately, we left the house for my husband’s friend in Beit Lahia Housing Project near Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital. We could miraculously leave the camp and reach his house by taking sub-roads and alleys under drone fire. I still cannot believe how we arrived safely.

At around 16:00 on 22 October 2024, while we were at my husband’s friend’s house, we heard a quadcopter calling in a microphone in Arabic, “everyone get out of your houses now, raise a while flag and head to Zayed Square.” It scared us a lot. We did not know what to do, but moments later we heard people on the street. I could look out the window and find many people flooding out of their houses while raising white flags and heading to Zayed Square.  So, we did the same and got out of the house while raising a white flag.  As we walked on Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital’s street, shells and bombs intensified while quadcopters were hovering above us.

When we arrived at Zayed Square upon IOF’s orders, there were tens of military vehicles, including tanks, transfer vehicles and bulldozers, they were too many, may be 50 along with tens of Israeli soldiers, totaling 150 and surrounding the place.  It looked more like a military base with that sheer number of soldiers and vehicles.

As we approached Zayed Square, there were tens of displaced people, including men, women and children.  Via loudspeakers, the soldiers ordered the women and children to stand away from men.  All males above 15 years old remained at the Square not knowing what would happen to them, including my husband Mahmoud ‘Abdel Kareem al-Deqqes and my son, ‘Abdel Rahman Mahmoud ‘Abdel Kareem al-Deqqes. Meanwhile, the Israeli soldiers ordered us, women and children, to head to Salah al-Deen Street to go to the humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip, but we refused and walked on side streets until we finally reached Gaza City and 2 hours later my husband and son arrived.