Will it ever be safe to return home?

Palestinians are seen on a street with buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, 12 April.
Rizek Abdeljawad Xinhua via ZUMA Press

Doha ِAbu Khater and her family of 11 once lived a comfortable life in Khan Younis. She was happy with her big house and having all her family members around. Doha also loved flowers and loved to watch them grow in her garden.

On the night after the seven-day truce with Israel in December 2023 ended, Doha faced a terrifying new reality. Israel was targeting her neighborhood in Khan Younis, and she and her family were forced to flee into the unknown.

With just the clothes she was wearing, Doha joined her family in leaving.

“I did not take anything with me,” Doha said. “I believed I would return to my home.”

They first sought shelter at a nearby school run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, or UNRWA, believing they would be somewhat safe there. But the Israeli military continued its bombing near the school, with no regard for all the displaced people who were seeking safety.

The family then went to the Ma’an school for shelter, but Israel targeted it, killing at least 20 Palestinians immediately after the truce ended.

Doha and her family escaped to the Nasser Medical Complex, feeling lucky to be alive.

They stayed there for 45 days until they noticed Israeli tanks closing in on them.

“We went to Rafah and stayed there in a tent until Israel made that operation where they freed the two elderly Israeli prisoners,” Doha said. “We escaped from the severe bombs that night. We thought that we would get killed for sure.”

Doha and her family then made their way back to Khan Younis. But they could not return to their home and stayed in a tent instead.

They spent 59 days in it.

Going back home

Finally, in April, Israel withdrew their tanks from Khan Younis, and Doha could return to her home.

On the way, she saw that all the streets she knew were destroyed, and all the buildings she was familiar with were now piles of rubble. She was heartbroken upon seeing the destruction.

Doha was filled with joy, however, when she saw her home again. She took pictures of every part of it and posted them on social media. Her excitement reached another level when she saw that her precious flowers were still alive.

Happily, she spent her days again in her house while she wished for a ceasefire with Israel.

Massacre in Khan Younis

Yet on 3 June, at 2 am, all the members of the Abu Khater family awoke when a missile hit their neighbor’s home.

Eight people were killed, and the neighborhood was filled with the sounds of sirens from ambulances. Doha and her family remained in their home.

Then, at 2:30 am, a missile hit their house.

“At first, I did not feel that we were bombed, not until a second missile hit us,” she said.

Neighbors came immediately to try to rescue them.

Doha was the only one still conscious at that time and told the neighbors to search for her mother and younger brother in the dining room, where they had been sleeping.

Israel’s missile had directly struck the dining room. Doha’s mother was under a wall, unconscious but alive, and beside her was Hamza, 13, bleeding from a wound in his leg.

Doha’s sister Saja was located under another wall, also alive but unconscious.

Doha and her neighbors continued to search for her siblings Anas and Omar, but their room was empty, like it had disintegrated. All of their belongings and furniture had been turned into ash.

No time to bid farewell

Anas, 24, was found, but not all of him, just the upper part of his body.

“I searched for my mother at first,” Doha said. “The thought that my siblings might be killed had not crossed my mind.”

Omar, 19, was nowhere to be found. Doha came to realize that the missile had “torn him into pieces.”

Doha had no time to feel sad. The neighbors took her surviving family members and her to the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

The next day, the remains of Omar and Anas were put in one coffin. The neighbors and others came to pray for them and buried them while their family members were still recovering in the hospital.

The injured family members were transferred to Nasser Medical Complex, but this time not to take shelter.

There, Doha underwent surgery on her head. Her mother and sister were treated for their wounds, and Hamza had five surgeries on his leg.

Hamza is still in the hospital, not yet able to walk.

Doha and her sister, who were not severely injured, will be the family members who take care of him.

Eman Hillis as a journalist in Gaza.