Shaimaa’ ‘Azzam Mahmoud ‘Abdel Razeq (26), married with 2 children, from al-Shati’ refugee camp.

PCHR’s staff received her testimony on 08 January 2024

I am a resident of al-Shati refugee camp and married to Isma’il ‘Issam ‘Abdel Razeq (31). I am part of the Palestinian people who have suffered from the atrocities of this brutal war that has affected each and every one as well as houses in the Gaza Strip.

My suffering has started with the beginning of this war as I was pregnant with my second baby, fearing for him. This fear has provoked early contractions and made me anxious all the time about having early and complicated delivery. As the war intensifies, fear grows and my suffering increases.

On day 8 of the war, particularly on 15 October 2023, IOF bombed a house next to ours near al-Sousi Mosque without any warning. As a result, our house sustained damage, and rubble and shrapnel fell on us. Most of those in the house were injured, including me and my 4-year-old child, ‘Omer, and thank god we all survived. We left the house to the street not knowing where to go. We stayed there for hours until one of the neighbors came and offered us to stay in his textile factory that stopped working due to the war. However, the factory was inhabitable and very small without electricity or a toilet. In short, it lacked all life necessities, but the situation has forced us into staying in that place and enduring all the suffering.

One night, IOF conducted massive airstrikes known as “fire belts” on places near the factory. It was one of the harshest nights; our hearts were to stop out of fear and children were terrified and crying. We did not know where the bombings were increasing our fear and we thought they were indiscriminate making us utter the Shahadah. Everyone was crying and shouting, none could move feeling helpless and sad for my children. We were all waiting for the morning to rise to leave the area. Thank god we survived that night and left the factory after staying a week there.

On 23 October 2023, we moved to a relative’s house on Hmeid Street and spent there another week. We suffered from the same circumstances; there was shortage of water and food and the place was very small as well sheltering other displaced persons. Days passed and I became more anxious for getting closer to my due date. There was no safe place and I did not know where I will deliver my baby or if I will be able to leave to the hospital when it is the time. I had many concerns and questions with no answers. The situation was very difficult amid relentless bombardment, no transportation and restricted ambulance movement. What I only had was to pray to Allah to have a safe and easy labor. After two weeks, we left the place again for very near bombardment and fire belts. Following threats from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for the camp, We learnt that a shelter for al-Shati’ refugee camp’s residents was opened that was a “UNDP” building of 5 floors. On 30 October 2023, under heavy bombardment, flare bombs, gas and white phosphorus, we left to that shelter to find it overcrowded with 3000 displaced persons with no place left for us. We stayed in one of the corridors on the fourth floor, where we could not stay for too long because there were a lot of people passing since the corridor connects the rooms with the bathroom. Some of us went to search for another place and finally could find space in a room sheltering 3 other families. I was with my 3 cousins and my cousin’s husband in addition to 8 children. we suffered again from the same dire conditions: no water, no electricity and no mattresses in addition to the narrow crowded room. I personally had my own suffering for being pregnant and feeling anxious for being past my due date and not feeling the baby’s movement at the time. Luckily, al-Helou Maternity Hospital was right in front of the building where we were staying and the maternity ward at al-Shifa Hospital had been transferred to it after the latter was bombed. I went to al-Helou Hospital to check the baby’s movement and why I went past due date. The doctor told me it was normal due to fear and exhaustion I went through as well as lack of water and malnutrition, and that the baby was fine. Two days later, she went into labor at midnight, but could not go to the hospital because I was afraid that we would be targeted as IOF target whatever moves at night. I had no choice but to endure the severe pain until the morning when we went to the hospital and delivered my baby boy, Hashem, on 09 November 2023. I came back with my baby to the uninhabitable shelter. Both of us needed special care and nutrition as well as a comfortable place to sleep in but unfortunately there was none of this. Only canned food was available like beans and feta decreasing my milk flow due to malnutrition and thus affecting my baby’s health and immunity.

Two days after my delivery, we woke up to the sound of tanks and gunfire, which hit each and every place on the street or at the shelter’s entrance, this was the hardest time of my life. I cannot forget people’s screams fearing the sound of artillery shells and fire and I will never forget how I carried my baby from one spot to another escaping the gas IOF was heavily throwing at us. I stayed in the corridor and the situation was extremely dangerous and unbearable, we were besieged under artillery fire without water or food, enticing more fear among us. The next day, IOF targeted the third floor with a shell, killing 4 young men and wounding 14 other persons, including children and women, and neither ambulances nor the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) were allowed access to the area. Those injured were left to bleed and luckily there was a female pharmacist in the place who helped whoever she could amid heart-wrenching screams. Mothers were crying for their bleeding children unable to anything for them, a scene I will never forget in my whole life. In the morning, all martyrs were buried in the front yard in a chilling scene. The situation was very miserable: continuous bombardment, starvation, thirst and siege. We were appealing the ICRC but in vain, so young men with us broke their silence and finally went to talk with the soldiers asking them to allow us to leave. IOF then allowed us and people started running toward the gate to get out, they left all their stuff and we did as well to survive. It was one of the hardest moments when we went out to see the IOF and their tanks right in front of us with massive destruction all over the place as if an earthquake had hit the area. I was holding my baby who was almost 4 days old walking between the tanks and about to faint out of fear and tiredness. The soldiers told us to go to the east to al-Sahabah Street. All the buildings and streets around us were destroyed, and dead bodies and body parts were scattered on the streets. IOF opened fire in the air right above our heads and on the ground right under our feet to terrify us and we were scared to hell.

We arrived at a school on al-Sahabah Street called al-Jerjawi School, which sheltered displaced persons. We sat on the ground to catch our breath and rest as the journey was very long and I was still in my post-delivery time, so I was not allowed to walk or make any effort; however, the soldiers forced me to do so and I could overcome all those difficulties. Two hours later, one of the school employees came and took us to a tent in the school yard to sleep in it. We were sleeping on the ground shivering from the cold weather as I was holding my child tight to warm him. Suddenly, we woke up to rain falling on the tent, and we immediately got up and rushed to hide from the rainfall in the school; however, this cold weather has made children sick.

After staying for 2 days at the school, the tanks approached as well as the sound of the artillery shells amid firing of flare bombs and gas, so we had to flee as far as we could. We walked until we reached Yafa School in al-Tofah area, which refused to receive us as the school was overcrowded. We asked them to stay only for the night and we would leave in the morning to south as the residents of northern Gaza were ordered. They allowed us to stay in the corridor in front of a classroom, and we had no option but to stay there amid the rainy and cold weather on the ground. It was one of the hardest nights; it was heavily raining and the weather was very windy. What hurt me the most seeing my child and baby shivering from the bitter cold and not being able to do anything except hugging them to keep them war while both of them had flue and cough.

In the morning, 15 November 2023, we prepared ourselves and headed to the south. We took a horse cart due to lack of transportation right from the school to the Kuwait Intersection. We then walked towards a checkpoint established by the IOF, where there were hundreds of displaced persons waiting inline and surrounded by snipers and tanks. The IOF arrested many young men, including my husband, Ismail, who was carrying my child. They called my husband to put down my child and approach them, and he responded to them and never came back. We burst in tears and could not do anything except going on or way, which was very difficult full of scattered dead bodies, massive destruction and belongings left on the street by displaced people upon the Israeli soldiers’ orders. The real suffering started that day after my husband had been arrested, I was in shock and could not describe how I felt. It broke my heart and my suffering and grieve increased. We went to my cousin’s house in al-Nusairat refugee camp, where we stayed for a week wondering about my husband’s fate but in vain as no one knew any news about him.

After a week, a humanitarian pause was declared and we left al-Nusairat to Hamad Housing Project in Khan Younis on 24 November 2023. We stayed there for a week until the pause ended and the IOF started bombing again. Hamad project was threatened to be bombed by the IOF, and we could barely escape under bombardment to the shelters in Rafah. We spent the first night in Mariam Farahat School in the Saudi neighborhood sleeping on the staircase. In the morning, we set up a tent on a sandy terrain in a makeshift camp for people displaced from Khan Younis without bathroom, water or sanitation. On the first night, my baby got sick and was very tired, so we took him to the hospital and his condition got worse due to severe Bronchiolitis. As a result, he was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Emirati Hospital. The doctor told I could not stay and should leave and pray for my baby to get well because his condition was very critical. All of that was due to what we experienced in shelters from the cold weather, lack of sanitation and poisoned air due to the Israeli bombardment and the smoke coming from cars that use cooking oil to operate. I returned in tears to the tent praying for my husband and baby. Thank god after three days, my child was discharged from the NICU, but the doctor told me not to take him back to the tent, so I went to my sister’s house in al-Juneina neighborhood, where I was very afraid to stay because it was near the borders with Israel. I then convinced myself that the suffering is everywhere, we are now in a state of war and under siege facing fear and psychological fatigue. I pray Allah to keep us safe during this aggression and protect my husband and bring him back to me. May all have mercy upon the martyrs, grant quick recovery to the injured and for this war to end so we safely go back home.