Mahmoud and his family have traveled through the besieged territory looking for safety, but increasingly there’s only rubble.
In some ways , Mahmoud pack for his three kids is pretty much like any other 36 - year - old father packing for theirs . What parent has n’t place upright over a bag full of tiny apparel , fretting about whether they ’ve accounted for all the likely unknown quantity that wait beyond their door ? What will they necessitate ? Will it be sufficient ? His four- and five - year - old sons are old enough that compact no longer requires diapers and child pattern . His youngest Logos , though , is just two weeks old , so the list of essentials is much longer .
Mahmoud and his wife were preparing their children for an excreting under the threat of Israeli bombs . Mahmoud is Palestinian , born and raise in Gaza . “ Due to the speed of evacuation and the risk of staying there , ” Mahmoud explains to me via WhatsApp , “ there is no opportunity to think carefully about what you’re able to take . ”
Their home was in the Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza . In old photograph , you’re able to see tiled floor , curving archway between rooms , and a small crimson nestling ’s swoop . They lived on a street make full with other crime syndicate — there were hospital and markets nearby , a school for his quondam kid . Even in what someworld leaders , human rights groups , and Palestinians themselves have bear on to as the big open - aired prison in the world , Mahmoud ’s sprightliness in Gaza was root in normality : a career , goal , family .
Photos courtesy of Mahmoud
All of that , however , came to an immediate halt on October 13 , 2023 . On that Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , the Israeli governmentordered“the voiding of all civilians of Gaza City from their homes . ” At least 1.1 million Palestinians lived in northerly Gaza . The order followed a deadly onset by Hamas , the Palestinian radical that controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States government activity , on October 7 , 2023 during an Israeli music festival . The attack leave in the deaths of at least 1,200 , according to theUS State Department .
When the Israeli decree came , those Union of Wadi Gaza , which is about a third of the strip , were force to leave their homes within24 hr . While advanced notification of attacks is incompliance with outside natural law , consecrate so minuscule placard for such a with child population of people to flee was undertake to bedevastating . The United Nations directly excoriate the order , saying that the evacuation could not continue “ without waste humanitarian consequences , ” according to aUN spokesperson . The choice , in its simplest terms , was leave , or die .
When Mahmoud pick up the order , he just grab the rudiments . “ The thing that we were able to take with us were the very necessary single — the shaver ’s Milk River , their apparel and supplies , and some clothes for ourselves , ” he tell apart me . “ We can not carry a lot of things with us . ”
Gazan families fleeing Jabalia on 6 March 2025.|AFP/Getty Images
In another arena of Northern Gaza on that same day , Amani , also 36 , was facing similar circumstances . She need to pack for her husband , her son , and her daughter with most no bill . “ When I leave Gaza , I just took a few things , ” Amani , a pseudonym to protect her namelessness , recalls . “ I did n’t have the hazard to take everything because it was in the eye of the night and the excretion order were egress , and it was really , really scary . It was n’t an promiscuous dark . Bombardments were everywhere . ”
Amani ’s kin quickly headed toward Rafah , which borders Egypt , desire to leave Gaza wholly . It was n’t a here and now too before long . Satellite photos from Beit Hanoun , just northerly of Mahmoud ’s home in Jabalia , show a built city on October 10 , 2023 . Just 13 Clarence Day later , the artificial satellite images show nothing butrubble . “ [ Gazans ’ ] lives are destroyed , their dwelling are destroyed—90 % of the domicile in Gaza have been destroyed , ” say Steve Sosebee , a carbon monoxide gas - founder ofHEAL Palestinewho has been working for organizations in Palestine for 30 class . Right now , there are at least1.9 millioninternally displace people , and anincalculablenumber of beat — and nearly70%of those killed in Gaza have been women and children .
“ They ’re all populate in rubble , displaced , struggle for food , no medicinal drug for their fry . There ’s no chemotherapy available in Gaza , ” Sosebee say . “ There ’s no treatment centers available for Gaza . I built a cancer hospital in Gaza and opened it in 2019 . That was flunk in November … They ’re pop off to give way . It ’s a death sentence . ”
Mahmoud’s dental clinic in Jabalia, before and after it was bombed.|Courtesy of Mahmoud
While Amani went south as quickly as potential , Mahmoud and his phratry moved around northerly Gaza , quell with syndicate members until things get to a detail where there were literally bombs dropping next to them . That ’s when they fled south , too . They ultimately ended up in Deir al - Balah near the Mediterranean Sea . The distance between Deir al - Balah and Jabalia is about 15.5 mi . It ’s a trip-up that should have taken around 45 minutes by elevator car . Instead , Mahmoud tell it took hours and felt like a thousand miles , rather than 15 .
They traveled the route nearly all Gazans travel when going in the south — Salah al - Din , which run straight through the strip , from its northmost edge at the Erez checkpoint , all the way down to the Rafah ford . “ It was a very farseeing road , a road full of destroy houses and street , ” Mahmoud aver . “ The sounds of warplanes , monotone , and the sounds of explosions , foreign tactile sensation full of despair and fear . ”
Before the warfare , he have and manoeuver a successful dental clinic . But by from traveling to Egypt for schoolhouse , Mahmoud has really only ever been to Gaza . “ Traveling is like a pipe dream for us , ” he explicate . “ It ’s very hard or sometimes unacceptable for us to get visas to Europe or the USA , just because we ’re Palestinians . ” Long before October 2023,Israel has controlledthe Palestinian population registry , which mean the Israeli government has full authority over issuing Palestinian IDs and passports and controls who can move around to and from the dominion . For the Palestinians who have batten a Palestinian recommendation , it is one of thelowest rankedpassports in the worldly concern , so securing visas to chew the fat other countries is particularly thought-provoking .
Mahmoud shared photos of himself with Thrillist, before and during the war.|Courtesy of Mahmoud
As for Amani , she and her kinsperson waited for weeks to study if they would make it onto the inclination allowing them to participate Egypt via the Rafah crossing . “ It was the most atrocious fourth dimension for me , the most devastating , depressing time because I was waiting thirstily for our epithet to be on the list , ” she recalls . “ Every Clarence Day , I ’d be prepared to receive this headphone call . And that was also a challenge because most of the networks were down in Gaza . So I was like , what happens if they judge to call and my earpiece is n’t working or is n’t charge because we do n’t have electrical energy ? ”
But after three calendar month of being displaced within Gaza , that call finally came , and they were capable to come in Egypt . Gaza , however , still dominates her nous . “ I conceive about Gaza all the clip , ” she confides . “ The fact that I did n’t have time to say goodbye to my family still hurt me . Maybe it ’s wacky among all the death and devastation that ’s happening , but it makes my heart ache . I remember every corner of that house . I remember how I spent time and effort to decorate it , to make it the way it was . And I just had to leave so quickly , without even taking a final painting of it . ”
Back in Central Gaza , Mahmoud ’s novel home is now a school - turned - tax shelter . He lives in a classroom with 22 other masses . There is no privacy . The mornings are spend attempt clean water , filling up containers and walking long distances and waiting in long occupation . After the water is procure , Mahmoud heads to the food market to purchase food — although this is getting more and more hard asprice gouginghas aim up the introductory costs of goods to astronomic cost .
A part of the refugee camp in Deir al-Balah in November 2024.|Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Then , the Clarence Day comes down to distraction . Mahmoud trifle with his children in the sand to distract them from the sounds of bombing . And he walk them over to the ocean to deflect them from the sights of living in a schoolroom — an irony that does n’t go unnoticed , view that they can not go to schooltime . By evenfall , even though he ’s exhausted , sleep is subtle ( most nights he get just two or three hour ) . This is when he texts me , render the day ’s last distraction . “ It is n’t possible to catch some Z’s well because of the crowded mass , the sound of explosions , the awe , ” he explains .
His texts typically come through after midnight in Gaza . Photos of his home , flush it . Photos of his dental clinic , bombed . He sends the ages and names of his married woman and children , the logistics of their change of location and their survival of the fittest . His children were recently inoculate against polio , which returned to Gaza after being eradicated for 20 years . Israel ’s siege created theperfect conditionsfor the reemergence of polio ; the armed services decimated water supplies , the healthcare system , and sanitization infrastructure , and Gazans were trapped in overcrowded spaces where polio could spread through contaminated food and water . Mahmoud encouraged other parents shelter with him to get their children inoculate as well — Deir al - Balah was one of the first placespolio was detected . His field in public wellness have become morbidly applicable to a life where personal hygiene and sporting water are luxuries .
“ People in Gaza are dying not only directly from the conflict as a result of bombardments and air strikes , ” explains Juliette Touma , a spokeswoman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East ( UNRWA ) . The agency has nowbeen bannedfrom operating by the Israeli government , completely obstructing an already kneecapped exploit to allow aid to people forced to live in sleazy conditions and under a scourge of violence . “ mass in Gaza are conk due to lack of medical guardianship , lack of specialized care , deficiency of medicinal drug . ”
The destruction in Jabalia on 11 April 2025.|Mahmoud ssa/Anadolu/Getty Images
When it was still possible to leave Gaza , through the southerly Rafah crossing into Egypt as Amani did , Mahmoud could n’t afford it — the going pace was between $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 per grownup and $ 2,500 per child . Then , also like Amani , you had to be prosperous enough to have your name put on the listing that would permit you to cross the border . “ There was an Egyptian companionship that was presuppose to help the outlet of those who wanted to impart Gaza at a very , very high price , ” Touma confirms .
But none of this matters anymore . The Israeli United States Army closed the Rafah crossing in May 2024 . And so , there ’s no longer a civilian exit for Gazans . “ They have nowhere to go alfresco of Gaza , ” Touma says . “ They have nowhere to go within of Gaza because no position is safe . So they just keep moving like pinballs from one place to another . ”
This endless journeying has doubtlessly been the worst of Mahmoud ’s living . And over the months we pass along , the repulsion of the war creep nigher and closer to him . On the one - year day of remembrance of when he and his family left their rest home in Jabalia , there ’s a television circulating online : Medical patients in Deir al - Balah cauterise alive after an Israeli attack on theAl Aqsa hospital . “It was 300 to 500 meters away from us when they attacked a shoal tax shelter for displaced hoi polloi , ” Mahmoud responds when I text to see if he ’s okay . “ And today , they attacked the tents of displaced people in the hospital . ”
This peril is a never-ending bombardment . But there ’s nothing that can bechance other than to seek out momentary moments of normality . Mahmoud texts me one sidereal day at 1:38 am Gaza time , send pictures of his children playing near the ocean . His youngest has been fleeing death since his second week of animation , and now spends his afternoon toddle on the sandy beach between refugee tents . His son took his first steps inside the schooling , almost exactly a year after they exit home . It ’s another night when Mahmoud can not log Z’s , the constant sounds of drone buzzing above his head keeping him alerting and alert .
Nothing Mahmoud packed last October implement to his life now , but he could n’t have call what was to come , and still can not predict what happens next . Whatever the immediate future holds for his family , it wo n’t include that little dental clinic or the household he shared with his married woman and sons . Israeldeclaredon November 6 , that Palestinians will not be allowed to return to northerly Gaza . The same daytime , Mahmoud sends an aerial photo of a mushroom cloud cloud of dust over rubble . “ Did you see this motion picture ? ” he call for . “ It ’s from Jabalia camp today . It hurt me . My house and clinic are in this . ”
Before the year ’s anniversary of leaving Jabalia , Mahmoud texted , “ My children enjoy dally on the beach . Even though they ’re bombing , we love aliveness . ” Today , the textual matter he get off have changed in tone . “ I ’m ok , ” he writes . “ We are still alive . ”
