I am Raneen from the Gaza Strip. My story is different from the other stories you have come across. It is a story linked to the history of events.

Before the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, I lived in my beautiful house in Gaza City in the Shujaiya neighborhood. I am married and have a beautiful child named Talal. I am also pregnant with another child, now also in my fifth month, and my birth is expected in February 2025.

Talal, my child, was 8 months old on

7 October, 2023, the date of the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. He began to grow older and older at the sound of bullets, the bombing of planes, the suffering of displacement, the lack of material and moral capabilities, widespread diseases, and a lost childhood life, until he became one year old on 17/01/2023.

I was hoping to throw him a beautiful and big birthday on his first birthday, but unfortunately, because of the war, I only kissed him on the cheeks on his birthday in Rafah Governorate at the time, the place of my displacement and suffering.

As for the suffering of my displacement with my family during this war, it was a great suffering that began as follows:

*Because I live in a dangerous area in a war situation in the Shujaiya neighborhood, I was forced to leave very quickly at the start of the war on October 7, without taking my supplies and my child’s supplies from the house in which I live in order to escape to another, safer house until 13/07/2023.

Then the occupation army decided to force us towards the south of Wadi Gaza, and here the suffering of displacement began, so we quickly fled on foot to the Nuseirat camp in the central governorate, south of Wadi Gaza, on 10/13/2023, to live there for 10 days.

Then a call came from the Israeli occupation army to evacuate the house immediately in the middle of the night in preparation for bombing it with warplanes, so we fled quickly to our relatives’ house also in the Nuseirat camp to live there for 40 days until the occupation threats came to immediately evacuate the Nuseirat camp on 12/02/2023, so we fled with my family to live. At Al-Aqsa University in Khan Yunis Governorate.

And here our suffering with the tent began. We bought the supplies to prepare the tent and began to live in a tent made of wood and old life instead of the large house in which we lived before the war.

We also prepared a small wooden bathroom due to the lack of sufficient bathrooms in the place, and our presence continued for only 25 days until we were surprised by the occupation forces suddenly raiding the university in which we live, and we were displaced to Rafah Governorate without any personal belongings. Even the tent, we could not take it with us, on 27/12/2023.

So we went to Mawasi, Rafah Governorate, and started buying tent supplies again, as well as preparing a bathroom again, and our suffering in the tent, the very high heat, and the very bitter cold, continued until 25/05/2024.

Let us begin the journey of displacement from Rafah Governorate after the occupation threatened to attack Rafah, so we fled and were displaced for the sixth time, this time from Rafah Governorate, returning to the Central Governorate in the Zawaida area, to live in a tent on empty agricultural land under the intense sunshine until this day, and write this story on 07/10/2024.

This means after a full year of war.

Today, my beautiful baby son Talal is one year and eight months old, meaning that he has been living for a whole year under the fire and bombing of the occupation in this fierce war. Likewise, I am pregnant with a baby girl who will come to this difficult life and this difficult war. I hope that my suffering and the suffering of my family, my child Talal, and my soon-to-be baby girl will end.

This is my story and the story of my family in this war and I need your support in order for my son Talal to live a better life, as well as my daughter who will soon come to this life, and for all of us to live a better life.