“Hello, my name is Mohammed… from the Kafarna family. I am 24 years old and I graduated in law from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. I live in the town of Beit Hanoon, next to the apartheid wall built by the Israeli occupation. I lost 15 people in my family. I lost two friends, we grew up together too.
For most young people, turning 24 means entering the job market, enrolling in higher education, or moving away.
But for Mohammed Kafarna, a Palestinian lawyer abandoned in Egypt, 24 years means helplessly watching the massacre of his family and friends in Gaza.
This is his story told to Tel Aviv Tribune through conversations, messages and voice notes.
October 3 – Cairo, Egypt
In early October, Mohammed went to Egypt for an eye operation that he was unable to undergo in Gaza. He was not traveling for pleasure, but wanted to make the most of his trip, writing on social media that he did not want to return home until he had seen the “beautiful places of Egypt”.
Mohammed wears glasses to see. In photos with his college friend Amjad al-Athamneh – who has since been killed in a bombing – his laugh lines extend to rounded contours.
Mohammed was among hundreds of Palestinians who were in Egypt for medical treatment on October 7. So far, none have returned to Gaza.
October 4 – Cairo, Egypt
On October 4, Mohammed joked about taking photos of his fellow travelers, saying his friends had never taken photos of him.
“The worst thing in life,” he said cheerfully. Like many young people, he once liked to share light photos of himself on social networks.
He could never have predicted the turn his life would take.
October 9 – Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza and Cairo, Egypt
On October 9, Mohammed’s cousin Suhail was transferring money for Mohammed’s surgery when an Israeli airstrike targeted the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza.
Suhail was killed during the exchange of money.
“We have shared everything since childhood. I couldn’t bear the news. I was in shock for three days.
Mohammed fell into a bottomless pit after the death of Suhail, whom he described as his brother. He couldn’t get out of bed.
Cut off from his family in Gaza, Mohammed had not yet had surgery, and his ability to see had taken a back seat as he refused to let anyone else suffer the same fate as Suhail in transferring money.
October 12 – Beit Hanoun, Gaza and Cairo, Egypt
On October 12, the house of Mohammed’s sister Maryam was bombed in Beit Hanoon. Her husband Ali and his entire extended family were killed.
Maryam, who was thrown 50 meters (164 feet) by the force of the explosion, and her two daughters survived.
One of Mohammed’s friends received a message from Gaza announcing the death of his brother-in-law. He reassured Mohammed that his sister and nieces were alive – for now.
“After their house was bombed, they were moved to the south of the Gaza Strip and were targeted again,” Mohammed said, his voice hollow.
Maryam was able to undergo several life-saving surgeries, but some of the care she needs will have to wait “due to the lack of medicine and treatment in Gaza.” His daughter Nihad was seriously injured and burned on the face while his daughter Sham’s left hand was fractured.
Gaza’s hospitals are so damaged and short of supplies that they cannot provide care. Several have closed their doors.
Stranded in Egypt, Mohammed was tormented by the suffering of his sister and nieces. Not only was he observing his family’s pain, but he also had to face the possibility of becoming the only one who remembered them.
He wanted the rest of the world to know what hospitals had to do in Gaza, that some operations were carried out without anesthesia because there simply isn’t any. So he went online to share the atrocities in Gaza.
“We don’t want to die and be remembered as if we were just numbers. Each of us has a dream and a future that we draw in our imagination.
His cousin Suhail’s dream was to raise enough money to build his own house.
October 23 – Cairo, Egypt
“Today I contacted my mother. I couldn’t contact her for five days…she told me they drank contaminated water.
His mother cried from hunger on the phone and Mohammed felt completely helpless. How could he keep his family from starving while they were stuck in Cairo? He appealed on social media for someone in Deir el-Balah to help his family.
“I just need someone to help me,” Mohammed pleaded. “(My family) needs gas to be able to make bread…”
The Israeli siege of Gaza has forced Palestinians to ration food and drink harmful water, conditions that have made life worse in what rights groups have for years called an “open-air prison.”
Despair threatened to overwhelm Mohammed. The world has turned its back on thousands of innocent people.
“Israel is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Mohammed said. “We have to… stop this.”
October 25 – Southern Gaza Strip and Cairo, Egypt
On October 25, Ahmed Musa Shabat, another university friend of Mohammed, went to a bakery in southern Gaza hoping to buy bread for his family. They had just fled Beit Hanoon towards the south.
According to Mohammed, Victory Bakery supplied the entire area and he believes it was targeted, as were the people buying bread. Ahmed and his cousin were killed.
There have been attacks even in southern areas where the Israeli army said civilians to flee. Those who headed south are still massacred.
“It was all one shock after another for me,” Mohammed revealed with difficulty. The amount of death he has been bombarded with in recent weeks has taken a toll on his mental state.
The same day Ahmed was killed, Mohammed learned that his cousin Muhammad and his young son Bassem had been killed in a bomb attack. Bassem was beheaded.
“His head is still under the rubble,” Mohammed said.
October 29 – Cairo, Egypt
Mohammed’s tone had become weary.
A few hours earlier, he had learned that his friend Ibrahim’s entire family had been killed. Ibrahim survived but remains in critical condition in an intensive care unit after a near-fatal head injury.
October 30 – Cairo, Egypt
Mohammed still hadn’t had eye surgery, but his thoughts were now entirely on his friend Ibrahim, for whom he still had hope.
“Pray for Ibrahim,” Mohammed implored. “And let the world know that the killings have not stopped. »
He wants to take advantage of his unexpected position as a Palestinian in Egypt to raise awareness of the desperate situation in Gaza.
He called on the world to denounce human rights violations in Gaza, Palestine.
“When are you going to act to stop the massacres? Mohammed challenged the international community.
“Your silence is killing us more than their missiles.”
November 26 – Southern Gaza Strip and Cairo, Egypt
Mohammed made contact with his mother for the first time in 10 days.
When her family fled their home in early October, they didn’t know how to pack clothes for the harrowing month ahead. His young nieces, he said, shivered in the rain in the displacement camps.
Since hearing about the ceasefire, Mohammed longed to see his mother and sister again, but his mother warned him not to attempt to cross the border.
“You would only be a burden to us here,” she told Mohammed. “There is no drinking water, no electricity and no food. »
“She told me to stay out and try to find work so that I can help them after this attack is over, because we have already seen life after the war.”
Mohammed said his family had been without electricity for more than a year, carrying water by hand more than 10 km (6.2 miles) or sleeping in freezing houses with no doors or windows.
In Cairo, Egyptian landlords are hostile to him and many displaced Palestinians who are struggling to pay their rent, according to Mohammed. He managed to find accommodation after scouring social media, but others weren’t so lucky.
Even if Gazans could send money to their loved ones abroad, those who fled Israeli air raids would have no income. When Mohammed’s family left home, they took only $150, which “ran out after the seventh day of war.”
Mohammed outlined one of his old dreams: to finish his law studies at Cairo University, with a specialization in international humanitarian law.
“This is what I dreamed of since my childhood: to represent my country and my cause in international forums, and to convey to the world the correct narrative of the Palestinian question. »
Palestinians, Mohammed said, love life and have dreams and ambitions. “They want to live in peace without fighting, without killings, without displacement. »
But after what he has experienced from afar in recent weeks, Mohammed is losing hope.
“I was disappointed in my childhood dream,” he said.
“I feel like my law degree is going to be destroyed. Why do we study laws and rights if we cannot protect them? » he pleaded desperately.
“What is the point of adopting laws and agreements if we do not see their effectiveness in Gaza?
“Don’t the children of Gaza deserve security and peace like the rest of the world?