Desperate Race to Escape Rafah Before Israel’s Final Invasion
In the midst of the chaos that engulfed Gaza last October, I, like many others, initially believed that the conflict would only target specific Hamas-affiliated hideouts and neighborhoods. The reality soon dawned upon us all, however, this was a war against every facet of life in Gaza.
I’m a lawyer, but I soon found myself displaced and stripped of everything familiar: my home, my job, even the necessities of life like food, clothes, medicine, and water. In this war, we Gazans—whether rich or poor, powerful or powerless—all stood together, equally vulnerable against the brutal Israeli attacks.
In the initial onslaught, my family and I sought refuge in the Christian Orthodox cultural center in Gaza City. But after enduring days of relentless bombardment—with strikes perilously close to our refuge—we fled to the south of the Strip just two days before the center was obliterated.