The war in Gaza sparked a brutal attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel and has led to a sustained offensive by Israeli forces against the militants.
Ahmed Abu Aita lost 45 family members, including his wife and son, and his family dairy and cheese business after an airstrike on October 20, 2023.
© UNOCHA
Ahmed Abu Aita gestures to his home in northern Gaza, which is in ruins.
“The pain of losing my family, my son and my wife is indescribable,” he told Ziad Taleb, the UN news correspondent in the Gaza Strip.
“I was under the rubble,” he said. “I screamed for help for two days, but no one could hear me because this area is considered too dangerous to be in. Finally a neighbor heard my cries for help.”
“Some of my relatives are still under the rubble,” he added.
Hamas attacks
The October 7 attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups left some dead 1,200 dead and more than 250 people taken hostage.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, Israel’s response in Gaza has cost the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians in the enclave.
Moreover, almost 90 percent of the population is displaced; many have been forced to move several times.
‘Death row’
Many Gazans have felt like “everyone is on death row” since the start of the war, said senior humanitarian official Jonanthan Whittall of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.OCHA).
“Either they have been killed by bombs and bullets, or they are slowly being suffocated by the lack of means to survive,” he said, adding that “it seems like the only distinction being made is the rate at which you die. .”
© UNOCHA video
Jonathan Whittall works for OCHA in Gaza.
A year of ‘destruction, displacement and despair’
A year of “destruction, displacement and despair” has left all of Gaza in ruins, driving almost all Palestinians from their own homes and onto just 13 percent of the Gaza Strip’s total area, Mr. Whittall said.
“I wish life could go back to the way it was before the war. I hope, even if it is impossible, that my relatives who have been tortured will come back,” Mr Aita said.
Mr Aita also underlined the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“To get filtered water, we stand in rows under the sun to fill five liters of water. We also have difficulty collecting wood to light a fire,” he said, adding that he now lives in a small classroom with about a dozen people.
Given the lack of food and safe water, inadequate shelter and the collapsed healthcare system, Mr Whittall lamented that OCHA is being hampered in delivering humanitarian aid “every day”.
I hope to return to the ‘old and normal’
Despite all the destruction and loss of life, Mr. Aita’s resilience remains.
“We will not give up, whatever the occupation imposes and destroys on us, we will rebuild. God willing, we will come back stronger,” he noted.
He plans to reopen the business and keep his father’s name alive.
