The ongoing crisis in Gaza: Najwa’s story

It has now been over 18 months since Israel’s assault on Gaza began, with just a month of ceasefire allowing trapped civilians some relief. Now whole cities have been turned into rubble, foreign aid is blocked and the situation is more desperate than ever. What’s more, people trying to survive there are worried that the global news agenda is moving on and they risk being forgotten.

Every Gazan now has a distressing story to tell, but Najwa Ishaq has lost more than most. With 25 members of her family killed, including her husband and daughter, she is struggling to go on, but she still has two other children whom she is determined to protect if she can.

“Before the war on Gaza, I had a very beautiful life, a beautiful home, and a beautiful family,” she remembers. “My life has turned into hell, suffering, poverty, and humiliation.”

Bereaved, deported and displaced

Najwa lost her home during the first month of the Israeli assault, and sought shelter in UNRWA schools, but it wasn’t long before those too became unsafe. Threatened by soldiers, she and her remaining family members were deported to Rafah, near the border with Egypt. She wanted to leave the country and find somewhere safe to stay until the war was over, but it costs thousands of pounds per person to do so and she had nobody available to help her find the money. Since then, she has been displaced 13 times.

With the city of Rafah now largely destroyed and its transport links to the rest of the country severed, she is living in eastern Khan Younis, where she and her children have only a tent for shelter and dream of being able to afford the rent for, as she puts it, “a room with walls.” She’s had to cope with their tent being destroyed five times in the past.

Coping with illness in Gaza

This situation is more complicated for Najwa because she has a chronic illness for which she needs medicine and a healthy diet. She’s also desperately worried about one of her sons, who has a gastrointestinal illness and anaemia. “Today he was discharged from the hospital due to the increase in the number of patients in the hospital,” she explained when we spoke. “They asked me to feed him fresh vegetables with vitamins constantly, and this is very expensive. I am required to eat eggs, milk, supplements and vegetables. It’s a struggle to go buy firewood and then go get water from long distances. Then I go back to buy food and sometimes I don’t get it because of the high prices.”

Food is still being grown in Gaza, she explains, but only simple cultivation is possible while the war is raging. Large amounts of agricultural land have been destroyed, according to UN reports, and supply routes from outside the country have been closed. Hunger is everywhere.

A mother’s hopes and fears

In addition to these immediate problems, Najwa’s children are unable to go to school. “They lost their education due to lack of supplies, they lost their toys, food and everything. They are very sad and in pain,” she explains.

“I want my children and I to live in peace and security, but I don’t know what to do. We want to live in a beautiful house, eat good food, and for our children to go to school and return to the way they were. We are here tormented and dark, no security, no peace, no food, no education, no electricity. Our life is all humiliation, insult, and injustice.”

Khan Younis has faced heavy bombardment over the past week, and there have been claims that Israel is targeting equipment used by rescue workers to help people trapped in rubble, as well as vehicles used to move essential supplies. Meanwhile delegates from the Israeli government and Hamas are preparing to meet in Cairo for discussions about a potential second ceasefire. Civilians like Najwa will be anxiously waiting for news.

If you would like to help Najwa and her children, you can contribute to her fundraiser.