Sa’aed with his mother. Photo: Sa’aed Meqdad

No Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip has felt safe since October 7, 2023, having faced heavy bombing from the Israeli occupation. But in spite of the dangers, Palestinians have strived to reject the orders of their occupier to leave their homes in Gaza and evacuate to its south.

But as the brutality of the occupation continued to escalate and the killing and destruction become a daily norm, many of us have reluctantly had no choice but to flee to the south of Gaza.

One young man in particular, Sa’aed Meqdad, 33, was displaced like many others with his family, first to the Al-Shifa Medical Complex. Sa’aed, whose name (not to be mistaken with Saeed, meaning happy) implies a man who rules with legitimacy and authority, was once a gregarious man, with a kind face and generous smile that disarmed those who knew him. He had lived in the center of Gaza City, in the Al-Nasr neighborhood, surrounded by everyone he loved. In keeping with Gazan customs, he lived with his parents and siblings in a four-story house, each occupying a different floor.

Unmarried, Sa’aed had always made his parents his priority, believing that marriage could wait until later. Those daily interactions and proximity to his parents had made him not only indispensable to his aging parents, but also the most doted on of their children. And so he had not rushed into marriage, though the idea was never far from his mind.

There never passed one day in his life when he did not hear his nephew’s playful cries, smell the aroma of his mother’s cooking, or share a cup of coffee with his father. The family bonds were as strong as the bricks and cement of their home in Al-Nasr. But all that came to a crashing end in October 2023, when the whole family found itself in the hospital complex seeking shelter. He remained in the Al-Shifa complex where the bombing’s unrelenting pace trailed every heartbeat, finally piercing the walls of the hospital compound.

The initial decision to go to Al-Shifa had weighed heavily on him at first. The family had lived through three months of incessant war at home. Sa’aed’s father, an elderly man, had become deathly sick. His condition deteriorated due to the great shortage of medicines, until he could barely hold on to life, and so they evacuated to the hospital complex.

But remaining at the hospital was not an option, as the compound swelled with the bodies of injured and dying. With his parents and siblings, Sa’aed fled to Rafah, a small city then bursting at the seams with refugees, now numbering a million and a half living in camps for the displaced. There was no end to suffering, and people lived in primitive conditions with no water, no electricity, and no basic necessities. The place resembled a desert.

On March 30, 2024, Sa’aed woke up and went to wake his father for the dawn prayer, a habit the old man refused to abandon despite his pain and illness. Unfortunately, that morning, his father could not be awakened. Sa’aed found him dead in his bed. The loss of his father would be the first of many losses he would face.

As the pace of the brutality of the occupation accelerated, Gazans had to flee again. The displacements were becoming so frequent, they lost count as everyone scattered in all directions. Some fled to the city of Rafah while others fled to the central area, Deir Al-Balah, or to the Mawasi area in Khan Younis. But anywhere Gazans went, they faced the same conditions, because the Israelis had destroyed all the infrastructure; the water was completely cut off, and there was no electricity, either. Everywhere that Gazans ran to, they found nothing but the same spartan and desolate conditions.

Sa’aed and his family found refuge in Dawar Al-Nas, in Mawasi Khan Younis, but his heart ached with the loss of his father, whom he had buried in Rafah. He was responsible for his mother and his brother Ghaleb’s family that included four children.

The Israelis had told the civilians that the area of Al-Mawasi was a safe area, only for them to commit multiple massacres in that very place. On July 13, 2024, many were martyred and injured, among them Sa’aed, He was on his way to buy some food, knowing that there was only canned food available. But he could barely find a small quantity of cheese in the markets. His family was facing hunger and fear.

The shrapnel flew close to him, hitting him in his left foot. Sa’aed feared the worst for his family back at the tent. Ambulances crowded around to transport the injured, and Sa’aed found himself transported to one of the field hospitals in the central region. His family members were taken to Nasser Medical Complex. Unfortunately, his mother, brother Ghaleb, and Ghaleb’s wife had been martyred; they arrived at the hospital dead. Their four children survived, but one of them sustained severe injuries, his body riddled with shrapnel.

Sa’aed’s older brother Sami rushed to the hospital to see his family. Sa’aed had made a pledge earlier with Sami not to live in the same area.

Sa’aed stayed in the hospital for about a month but once released, he came to the dismal realization that they had no place to go.

There was no option but to keep living, if only for the sake of Ghaleb’s children. Once again displaced, Sa’aed went to the Mawasi Al-Qarara area, where his sister and her husband were displaced in a tent, another so-called safe area. Within one month, he would have to leave again, as the ground invasion encroached.

It was an early morning on a warm September day. At seven in the morning, just as they woke up, intense shelling pummeled their camp. Three young men were targeted and murdered by the quadcopter’s snipers. The losses were multiplying daily with the targeting of men, women, and children as they were doing the most mundane of things, sleeping, walking, eating.

The occupation’s tanks were looming closer and children were distraught and crying. Mothers and fathers scrambled to comfort them and keep them close as they packed their personal belongings and headed to the end of the street, westward, towards the sea.

Sa’aed’s foot had not yet healed and he needed help to walk. Once he reached a safe area, he sat on the ground, helpless and miserable like everyone else, his face pale from fatigue. Once darkness fell, he found himself without shelter again and began the arduous journey to where his sister was encamped with her family.

The tent was uncomfortable and the temperature unbearable. He slept on the cold sand at night and wake to the sun’s rays.

A camp where Sa’aed stayed. Photo: Hadeel Awad

After the withdrawal of the Israeli army’s vehicles, Sa’aed found no option but to return to the camp where they had been. Sa’aed joined the masses of displaced persons who wanted to retrieve what remained of their tent homes. The occupation’s tanks and bulldozers had destroyed many tents during the ground invasion, with their residents still inside of them.

Tell me, my dear, how can an injured person escape the brutality of the bombing and the inhumanity of the occupation? Sa’aed was trying to stay alive. He had by now lost much weight and aged 20 years in the two months since his injury. He was no longer the same person he was before the war. Without a job and his workplace completely destroyed, he had nothing to look forward to.

Finally, after 15 months of suffering, cold, hunger, loss and displacement from one area to another, an agreement was reached and a truce was declared. But Sa’aed had nothing to return to. He did not feel like the leader his name meant to him to be. He had lost his family with whom he was displaced, and they will not return together. His hopes to find a bride and celebrate with his parents’ blessings slipped from his sight. His wide smile rarely crosses his face and his eyes have become accustomed only to horror. He will have to adapt to living alone without the people he loved — his parents, his brother and sister-in-law.

No one of us can endure this kind of loss in such a short time. Gazans are family bound and oriented such that family interactions are as desired as they are uplifting because of the safety they provide. They help the young and old thrive and energize, and there is never a moment of loneliness.

But there are many in the Gaza Strip just like Sa’aed, who lost many family members or even their entire families, their places of work, their friends, and people they loved. They cannot continue as they were before, and they will not be able to return to what they were before the war. Tell me, how are they to continue living when every family member has been murdered and every home you have lived in has been bombed to smithereens?