Ola Mohammed Salem Saleh (50), an employee at the Military Medical Services, is married with four children and resident of Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza.

She provided the following testimony to PCHR’s Fieldworker on 09 January 2024.

“I am married to Emad Zakaria Abdullah Abu Zaid (50), a Palestinian Authority employee, and have 4 children: Yahia (19), Zaina (17), Kenzi (15) and Batoul (14). We lived on the Towers Street in al-Sa’adah (1) Tower in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, south of Gaza city.

On 13 October 2023, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) dropped leaflets ordering the residents of Gaza city and Northern Gaza to evacuate to the south of Gaza Valley. We immediately contacted one of my friends, who lives in Khan Younis. We headed to his house which is located in al-Sheikh Naser area and stayed there for approximately two weeks.

On 27 October 2023, a nearby house was bombed without prior warning. Many people were killed while the house we were staying in was severely damaged. We saw body parts flying in the air and the rubble of the house was falling on us. We rushed to the street scared to death and then our friends decided to leave the house due to the severe destruction, so we went back home in Gaza, where we only stayed for 2 days.

At approximately 14:30 on 29 October 2023, we received calls from the army warning us to evacuate because they are planning to bomb the tower. We rushed towards al-Quds Hospital in Tal Al-Hawa area, and on our way, a building belonging to Abu al-Qomboz family was bombed. Fearing for our lives, we sought refuge at Tal al-Hawa Preparatory School for Girls, which was the nearest and safest place, at least we thought it would be. We were around 3,500 persons at the school. We suffered from shortage of water and food supplies since aid deliveries into Gaza city were cut off. As a result, many started heading to the south of Gaza. Around 185 people remained in the school including my family.

We stayed for two weeks in the school without water until it started raining one day. We rushed to the yard carrying buckets to gather rainwater to drink. We depended on canned and starchy foods for eating.

On 19 November 2023, we were surprised with heavy deployment of Israeli snipers on the high buildings surrounding the school. We were on the second floor in the school building, so we decided along with all the displaced persons to go to the first floor, thinking it was safer. There was heavy shooting and indiscriminate bombardment enticing fear among us. We had difficult and indescribable days that were slowly passing; we could not leave the school while food was scarce and water was almost non-existent. We had no money and all the banks had been closed as the ATMs were out of service due to the deteriorating situation in Gaza. We were isolated from the outside world. Internet and communications were completely cut off. I learnt later that my friends abroad posted appeals on social media to know any news about me and my family.

Later on the same day, when my husband went up to the second floor to bring some belongings, the Israeli snipers shot him with a bullet in the left shoulder. Among the displaced, there was a nurse who was able to stop my husband’s bleeding and stitched his wound as she had a first aid kit with her. On the same day, a woman called Em al-Mo’ayad Hilles went to bring clothes for her children from the second floor, but she was also shot in the neck and immediately killed.

On the morning of 20 November 2023, we were surprised with a drone hovering in the school yard and taking photos of us even though we hanged large banners reading in English “we need water” and “we are civilians.”

The next morning, 21 November 2023, we knew that IOF were stationed in a school near us called Um al-Qora School. At around 11:30 am, while we were busy providing our children’s basic needs, an Israeli tank suddenly stormed the school after destroying the school wall. All of us immediately gathered as one group infront one of the classrooms. I hugged my girls tight while I was shaking. Their faces paled with terror; my little child was crying while the other was trembling in fear and covering her face with her hands. The soldiers started deploying in the school while my husband was next to me. He wanted to move few steps to stand in front and protect us. Suddenly, they directly opened fire at my hubsand and hit him with three bullets immediately killing him. I started crying and tried to cover the eyes of my son and daughter so they would not see that horrific scene. My eldest daughter passed out, and a woman held her so she would not fall on the ground and started to wake her up. Two friends of my husband, Abu Ahmed al-Hamarnah and ‘Ali al-Wadiyah, approached my husband to save him, but the Israeli soldiers opened fire at them and they immediately fell dead on top of my husband. My son, Yahia, then tried to approach his father, who was lying on the ground, but the men held him back fearing that the soldiers would shoot him. I wanted to scream so loud to grieve the loss of my husband, but my voice would not come out and I stood still holding my daughters tight. The Israeli soldiers then called via loudspeakers ordering us to leave the school, and at the school gate. They separated men from women. They took my son along with the other men. They were ordered to go to a street leading to the Ministry of Interior in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood. Israeli soldiers, vehicles and tanks were heavily deployed in the area along with snippers stationed in buildings that have not yet been bombed or destroyed. Meanwhile, women, including myself, were ordered to raise our hands, walk few steps and stand on the rubble of destroyed towers, including the tower where I lived. The area had become a deserted place amid dead bodies left in the streets and destruction everywhere. They ordered us to walk while raising our hands towards al-Zaytoun neighborhood and did not allow us to take any of our stuff from the school. We kept walking for four hours, I was walking and crying recalling the scene of my husband left dead on the ground knowing that stray dogs will tear up his body. I was also worried about my detained son wondering what they would do to him. Bad thoughts started flowing into my mind: would they execute him or would they arrest and torture him?

We then arrived at al-Zaytoun neighborhood, specifically at al-Majdal School, where we stayed for four days sleeping on the floor. One of the women had some money left with her and helped us to buy a plate of rice from a street vendor outside the school. Each one of us had one spoon only.

On 22 November 2023, I received a call from my son, Yahia, telling me that the IOF had dropped him at Netzarim intersection without any clothes except for his underwear and ordered him to head south. He said that someone drove him to a training center in Khan Younis where people sought shelter including my sister.

On 24 November 2023, the first day of the truce, I decided to go to the south with another displaced woman as Gaza has become uninhabitable. I had no money but she had some to take us there but it was not enough. When I arrived at the UNRWA shelter, my sister paid the rest of money for the driver. I finally met my son and all of us went to a house belonging to my friend from Sha’ath family.

A week after the truce ended, the area was bombed with a fire belt, a series of heavy weighted bombs, and IOF then dropped leaflets ordering us to evacuate from Khan Younis.

I did not think twice about leaving fearing I would go through the same experience that I had in Gaza. I took my children to Rafah, specifically to UNRWA Rafah Preparatory School for Girls in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood. I did not want to stay in an unsafe place and endure more irreparable losses.

Today, I’m struggling with my children to survive as the shelter is overcrowded with displaced persons, unlivable, unhealthy and unclean. My son, Yahia, suffers from asthma. He daily inhales smoke that comes from cooking on fire as displaced persons burn wastepaper, chopped wood and cartons to cook and bake bread. We also suffer from shortage of water, including brackish water, amid the high prices of products. A meal containing the simplest ingredients like “al-Mjadarah”, a traditional Palestinian meal comprised of lentils, rice and onion, would cost us 200 shekels (55$). We are also forced to go to unclean bathrooms that have no water and are used by a large number of people. If one of my daughters needed to go to the bathroom at night, I would go with her fearing for them. If my husband was still alive, he would have helped undertaking these responsibilities under these difficult circumstances.