Updated 10.29 | Published 10.28
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The war between Hamas and Israel has been going on for six months.
A half year that meant death, flight and countless dreams that were crushed in Gaza.
– I wish death had hit me instead, says Nadia, who has lost four children.
Here are some of those affected by the war.
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full screenHind Rajab turned six. Photo: Red Crescent
Hind, 6, was found dead after the 911 call
“Please come and get me. Can you pick it up?”, says 6-year-old Hind Rajab in unison alerted phone call to the non-profit rescue service Palestinian Red Crescent.
The girl was stuck in a car outside Gaza City after her and her family’s escape attempts failed. They were reportedly fired upon by Israeli tanks, and only Hind Rajab and a cousin of hers survived. Surrounded by their dead relatives, they made the call that spread.
Two weeks after the call, in February, she was found dead, along with the paramedics who tried to save her.
– We send our deepest condolences to their families, friends and colleagues, said Red Cross Secretary General Anne Bergh after she was contacted by the news.
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Nadia Samir Hajazi, 42.
1 / 2Photo: Muhammad-Al-Masry
Nadia, 42, is no longer a mother of five
Nadia Samir Hajazi, 42, fled to Rafah in Gaza where she moved into a tent with a total of 25 people. Before she came to the migrant city with her 12-year-old daughter Shahad and her husband, she was a mother of five. She is no longer.
The children Khadr, 15, Abdallah, 8, Lama, 6, and Bilal, 4, died in an Israeli airstrike when they went to the store to buy sweets.
– What had these children even done? What should I do? I wish I died in their place. I wish death had hit me instead, said Nadia when she met Aftonbladet’s envoy in Gaza in February.
Nadia found her four children outside the store. Bloody, dead. Lama had a candy in his hand. Today, only Shahad remains, and the mother of five is a mother of one.
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full screen Saher, 16, was stuck in war-torn Gaza for four months. He and his sisters were in Gaza for three years and had a daily school life there until the war broke out. Photo: Mats Andersson
Swedish Saher’s father died in the flight
Saher, 16, was in Gaza for four months before his uncle Samir in Sundsvall managed to get him out with the help of bribes. He paid SEK 120,000 so that the nephew could escape.
Saher moved from Sweden with his family to Gaza three years ago. As the bombs fell, their escape began.
– It felt very good that he was allowed to leave. We were afraid he would never get out of Gaza. But if they had been helped to leave early when the war broke out, his father would still be alive today, Samir told Aftonbladet.
Still, at a hospital in Gaza, his father Anwar is buried. Shot to death.
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full screenRola Saqer feeds her daughter Masa Mohammad Zaqout, who was born on the day the war broke out. Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
Masa, 0, was born in war
In the middle of an Israeli airstrike, while seeking shelter, Rola Saqer’s water broke. She and her husband Mohammed Zaqout had been trying to conceive for five years. And on the day when the war broke out, October 7, the daughter Masa was born.
The family tells AP about the shattered plans for Masa’s upbringing.
– I had prepared both things and clothes for her. I bought her a wardrobe a week before the war. I had birthdays planned. The war came and destroyed everything.
The family fled to the Saboura refugee camp where their new home became a tent. Lack of access to food has made Saqer unable to breastfeed.
– Even when I endure the pain, I try to breastfeed my daughter. But she drinks blood, not milk, says Saqer to AP.
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full screenAl Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh mourns his son Mahmoud, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 25 October. Photo: Ali Mahmoud/AP/TT
Mahmoud wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps
Mahmoud al-Dahdouh wanted to be a journalist, just like his father – Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh.
Determined to spread the fate of his homeland to the outside world, the 16-year-old began recording videos together with his sister Kholoud.
As the bombing of Gaza City became increasingly intense, the family left their home behind and moved from place to place. In the end they ended up in the Nuseirat refugee camp. There they would be safe – it was within the zone that Israel had asked the Palestinians to flee to.
On the night of October 25, Mahmoud was killed in an Israeli airstrike along with his mother, seven-year-old sister Sham and 1.5-year-old nephew Adam.
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full screen Lubna Elian was killed in an Israeli airstrike on November 21. Photo: Private/TT
Lubna dreamed of becoming a world star
Lubna Elian was given a violin by her father. She loved it.
The 14-year-old began taking music lessons at the Edward Said Conservatory in Gaza. She was talented and dreamed of a future in music, on the big stages. She wanted to become a world star, to represent her people and her homeland.
Now nobody plays the violin anymore.
On 21 November, Lubna, her parents and siblings – along with over 40 other relatives – were killed in an Israeli airstrike against Nuseirat.
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full screen Palestinians in the destruction after an attack on Khan Yunis. Photo: Israel Palestinians
The “miracle children” died from a grenade
Alaa al-Masri married at 17. For ten years, she and her husband struggled with infertility, underwent countless medical examinations and repeated attempts at in vitro fertilization.
Then came the miracle: the son Karim. He was an intelligent child, full of energy and filled the house of al-Masri with life. Two years later, his brother, Ahmed, called Moudi by the family, arrived – also a miracle.
“Moudi was the funniest child ever with his words and his stories,” writes his aunt in a text published on X.
On January 8, it all ended. Karim and Ahmed were killed when a shell hit the family’s house in Khan Yunis. The children they fought for for over a decade.