In the north of Gaza, two roads connect the town of Jabalia to the Jabalia refugee camp.
As-Sikka Street runs along the route of the railway that crossed Gaza before the creation of Israel, connecting it to Iraq, Turkey, Egypt and the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Parallel to As-Sikka is a small street known as Assalia, named after the large Assalia family who live in this area.
Late last week, 26 members of the Assalia family were killed and six houses on this street were reduced to rubble by an Israeli attack, according to testimony from a witness. The street is now just a dirt road, post-event footage reviewed by Tel Aviv Tribune shows, with bodies emerging from beneath the rubble every day.
Ibrahim Assalia, 46, a media teacher from Gaza who has lived in the UK since 2006, was on the phone with his brother at the time of the attack on Jabalia and his family.
“Pray for me, they are massively bombing the area,” his brother Assalia said on Saturday.
His brother Mohammed and his sisters Weam and Assel survived the bombings. But since then, their troubles have only gotten worse.
The bombing came as a surprise: life had slowly returned to normal with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from northern Gaza, Assalia said.
His family had told him that the shops in Jabalia were reopening and that the prices of everyday goods – from flour to goat meat – were finally falling.
But now, surviving members of the Assalia family are trying to flee Jabalia as Israeli forces return north, also intensifying attacks on Gaza City.
Through phone calls and air-dropped leaflets, the Israeli army ordered Palestinians in Jabalia to move west, apparently to continue their attacks in the area.
But no warning was received for Assalia’s relatives killed on Saturday, among whom were children and the elderly.
“They were at home. Nobody told them to leave,” he said.
Israel has described its return to the north as part of a so-called “mop-up” phase of the war, with Hamas saying its fighters are engaged in fighting there.
Critics and Israeli military officials, quoted anonymously in several media outlets, say the re-emergence of Hamas in northern Gaza is a consequence of Israel’s failure to plan for what will happen after the war, choosing instead to continue attacks. bombings and rejecting negotiations. of a permanent ceasefire.
And that means that – with the death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza surpassing 35,000 – Palestinian civilians have no idea when the bombs will stop.
“Who is next to die?” » Assalia – who himself narrowly escaped death in Gaza when war broke out in October – asks himself questions every day.
Generations killed, memories destroyed
Most of the 26 people killed were Assalia’s close cousins, others more distant relatives whom he saw less frequently.
His family members were part of the tapestry of his annual visits to his relatives in Gaza – memories now erased by nearly eight months of war.
Last year’s visit, which Assalia made in August before being trapped by the war, was more urgent; his father had been diagnosed with blood cancer.
Unable to leave the enclave to receive treatment in time due to Israeli bombing, Assalia’s father died at the start of the conflict. Assalia paid $10,000 to have her disabled mother, Fatima, who cannot walk, and her other brother, Abdullah, to help her, escorted from Gaza to Egypt.
Throughout the war, hundreds of other members of the extended Assalia family were killed or displaced.
Assalia, a professor of media studies in London who worked as a news presenter for Palestine TV from 1998 to 2006, said his annual return to Gaza will never be the same.
“My childhood memories were all destroyed,” he said.
Like many people in Jabalia, Assalia’s siblings don’t know where to go next.
They left Jabalia with their families on Sunday, immediately after Israeli forces ordered them to evacuate, in panic, taking only cash and documents proving their rights to their land, he said. .
“They run towards the sea because they know it’s the west, but they stay standing in the streets,” Assalia said.
There are barely any houses left standing and schools are full of displaced people, he said.
The plight of her family is why, since December, Assalia has been working to pressure the British government to launch a family program in Gaza to facilitate the uncomplicated exit of relatives of more than 300 Anglo families -Palestinian women from Gaza and offer them a temporary stay in the country. United Kingdom.
Their campaign sparked a parliamentary debate and their petition collected more than 100,000 signatures.
It would be a respite for Assalia, who is struggling to save her mother and siblings.
Even if he manages to help them, he has first-hand experience of the type of minefield they will have to navigate to get to Rafah and out of Gaza.
At the beginning of November, Assalia, his wife and their six children took refuge in a single room in a building in Jabalia, alongside two other families also of British nationality. They survived on one meal a day of canned goods and were injured by Israeli air raids all around them.
Once British authorities declared there was safe passage out of Gaza via the Rafah border crossing, the family moved. But during their first attempt to reach safety, their car was hit by Israeli forces.
They abandoned the car and managed to escape, hiding in a nearby tire store. Soon, another air attack destroyed the car and all their luggage, Assalia said.
The family then returned to Jabalia on foot when they witnessed heavy artillery fire around them, he said.
A week later, they made another attempt, reaching the Rafah crossing on foot, stepping over corpses along the 15-kilometer journey.
For now, Assalia doesn’t know what else her family will face. He still hasn’t heard from them since they left Jabalia.
