DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Ne’man Abu Jarad sat on a tarpaulin on the ground. Canvas cloths hung from strings around him, forming walls for his tent. Over the past year, Ne’man; his wife Majida; and their six daughters have traveled the Gaza Striptrying to survive as Israeli forcesdestruction caused around them.
It’s far from them North Gaza home – a place of comforting routine, of affection and security. A place where lovers gathered on the roof amid the scent of roses and jasmine flowers.
“Your house is your homeland. “Everything good in our lives was at home,” Ne’man said. “We all miss that.”
The family lost that stability when Israel was launched his campaign in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 attack.
In the weeks and months that followed, they did exactly as the Israelis ordered. They obeyed call for evacuationmoving where the army told them to. They fled seven times. Each time their lives became more unrecognizable to them.
The Associated Press followed the family’s journey. Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced during the war – 1.9 million of the 2.4 million Palestinians. Like the Abu Jarads, most have been uprooted several times.
For this family, the journey has taken them from a comfortable middle-class life to ruin.
Before the war: a pleasant life
Living in the northernmost part of Gaza, most pre-war days were simple. Ne’man worked as a taxi driver. Majida took their daughters to school and then spent much of her day doing housework – her face lights up when she talks about her kitchen, the center of family life.
Ne’man had planted the garden with a vine and covered the roof with potted flowers. Watering them was a soothing ritual. Family and neighbors sat on the sidewalk or on the roof to chat.
“People would say we have perfume because of the beautiful flowers,” he said.
October 7: The attack
On October 7, the family heard Hamas rockets and news of the attack. They knew that Israel’s response would be swift: their home, about 2 kilometers from the border fence, would be on the front line.
At 9 a.m., the family grabbed what they could and fled, with Israel issuing one of its first evacuation orders.
“There is no point in being and remaining stubborn,” Majida said.
October 7-13: Stay close
The family tried to stay close: they went to Majida’s parents, in neighboring Beit Lahiya.
“I felt like I was at home,” Majida said. “But we lived in fear and terror.”
Al, Beit Lahiya was heavily bombed. According to conflict monitor Airwars, at least nine Israeli attacks took place there during the six days, resulting in dozens of deaths.
As the explosions got closer, shrapnel pierced the house’s water tanks. Windows shattered; the family huddled inside.
It was time to move again.
October 13-15: Hospital shelter
When they arrived al-Quds Hospitalthe family saw the bowl for the first time of displacement.
The building and grounds were packed with thousands of people. They found a small space on the floor, barely enough to spread out their blanket.
It was a black night and there were strikes, Majida remembers: “The martyrs and wounded were scattered on the floor.”
The next day, a strike hit a house a few hundred meters away, killing a doctor and about twenty family members.
The Israeli army ordered all civilians to leave northern Gaza, setting off a wave of hundreds of thousands of people south across Wadi Gaza, the stream and wetlands that separate the north from the rest of the strip.
The family joined the exodus. The eldest daughter, Balsam, and her baby joined her husband elsewhere. Majida, Ne’man, his sister and the children headed south.
October 15 – December 26: A cramped school
The family walked 10 kilometers (6 miles) to a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
All classrooms and hallways were full. Majida, Ne’man’s daughters and sister found a small spot in a classroom where more than a hundred women and children already lived. Ne’man moved in with the men in tents outside.
They stayed more than 10 weeks. Majida and the girls slept curled up on the floor, unable to even stretch their legs. When winter came, there weren’t enough blankets. Only a few toilets served thousands. People didn’t bathe for weeks. Skin diseases were rampant.
The daughters would queue daily at the few bakeries that were still operating, sometimes returning with just one flatbread. Once, Ne’man and his daughters walked five kilometers to the town of Deir al-Balah in search of drinking water. They got half a liter.
As the strikes continued, the family decided to go as far as possible and trek 20 kilometers (12 miles) to Rafah, on the southern side of Gaza.
December 26 – May 14: tent life
The Abu Jarads were not alone: as Israeli evacuation orders ate away more of Gaza, nearly half the population was crammed together. to Rafah.
Here the family was introduced to life in a tent for the first time.
They settled amid the vast sprawl of tens of thousands of tents on the outskirts of Rafah, near UN aid warehouses known as ‘the barracks’.
“In the winter it was hell,” Majida said. “We slept on the floor, nothing under us and no blankets.”
They had no money to buy food; market prices rose. They survived on UN handouts of flour and other basic necessities.
Like many others, they believed that Rafah was Gaza’s last safe haven.
But in early May, Israel ordered the evacuation of all of Rafah. Troops entered the city. The bombardment became more intense.
Ne’man and Majida tried to stay as long as possible. But an airstrike occurred nearby, he said, killing four of Ne’man’s cousins and a young girl.
May 16-Aug. 16: “Humanitarian zone”
Palestinians who had gathered in Rafah – more than 1 million – poured out again and spread across southern and central Gaza. New tent cities filled beaches, fields, school yards, cemeteries, landfills, any open space.
The Abu Jarads traveled on foot and by donkey cart to a former amusement park known as Asdaa City. The Ferris wheel stood above a landscape of tents.
Here, in Muwasi, an arid area of dunes and fields along the coast, Israel had declared a “humanitarian zone” – although there was little aid, food or water.
Amenities once taken for granted were distant memories. Now the kitchen consisted of a pile of kindling and two stones to put a pan on the fire. No shower, just an occasional bucket of water. Soap was too expensive. Everything was dirty and sandy. Insects crawled in.
August 16: Flight to the sea
Even the ‘humanitarian zone’ was unsafe. A raid less than a kilometer away forced Majida and Ne’man to uproot their family again. They headed towards the Mediterranean coast, not knowing where they would stay.
Fortunately, they said, they found acquaintances.
“God bless them, they opened their tent to us and let us live with them for ten days,” Ne’man said.
End of August: Moving again, no end in sight
When they returned to Muwasi, the Abu Jarads discovered that their tent had been robbed; their food and clothing were all gone.
Since then, the weeks have blurred together. Food is even harder to find; Supplies entering Gaza fell to their lowest levels.
Israeli drones buzz overhead. The mental pressure weighs on everyone.
They all dream of home. Ne’man said he heard his brother’s house next door had been destroyed in a strike and his own house had been damaged.
He wonders about his flowers. He hopes they survived, even if the house is gone.