A 27-year-old mother of two from a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Manar spoke about her nephew ‘Omar and her niece Maryam, who lost their parents, brother and grandparents when the house they were sheltering in was bombed:My son Khader is five years old and my son Muhammad is two. Now I’m also raising my nephew ‘Omar, who is nine. He and his sister are the only ones who survived the bombing of my uncle’s home, where their family was sheltering. Everyone else was killed.My parents and brothers lived west of Gaza City. In the first week of the war, there was already heavy bombing in their area and the Israeli army ordered them to evacuate. They went to a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza, but the bombing grew heavy there, too, so they move from one relative to another. Part of the time they were in a-Shati Refugee Camp, and part of the time they were in the area of al-Fallujah in Jabalya.On 26 October 2023, they went to stay with my uncle Ibrahim Lubad, 40, who was a doctor at a-Shifaa Hospital. Two days later, on 28 October, at around 11:30 P.M., the house was bombed right after my uncle got home. The entire place collapsed, and so did the neighbors’ house.I didn’t even know of the bombing. I simply got a message from a-Shifaa Hospital the next day, telling me to come there. When I arrived, I started looking for my family. I thought they were injured. Then I met my cousin Muhammad Lubad, 21, and when I asked him about my family, he said they were all martyred. My father and mother and my three brothers – Ahmad, Yusef and his wife Ghadah along with their son Hamzah, 9, and Mahmoud and his wife Walaa along with their baby Ousamah, 1.5. My uncle Ibrahim and another cousin of mine, Malek, were also killed.No one knew what happened to Yusef and Ghadah’s other two children – Hamzah’s twin ‘Omar, 9, and Maryam, 3.I screamed and cried and shouted my brothers’ names. Then I fainted and fell. I woke up just as my uncle Khalil arrived. He gave me some things that belonged to my mother – her watch, ring, necklace and earrings. He said that was what they found and was all that’s left. I took them and started sniffing them and crying. I was hysterical. I cried, laughed and screamed: “Get me my mother’s hand, I want to kiss it, to hold it.” But they were all buried. I didn’t see any of them.Then the doctors came and said they had good news for me. They said ‘Omar, my brother Yusef’s son, was alive. I went to see him immediately. He was asleep and I hugged and kissed him. He asked me where his twin brother Hamzah was. I told him, “He was martyred.” Then he asked, “And what about Mom and Dad?” I told him what happened and he said, “I want to go to sleep and not wake up.” I took ‘Omar from the hospital to the school I was sheltering in with my family.My uncle Khalil told me they couldn’t find the body of Maryam, ‘Omar’s three-year-old sister, and no one knew what happened to her. Three days later, the hospital notified me Maryam was found alive and was at a-Shifaa. Maryam is deaf and mute. That day I couldn’t get to the hospital, but my uncle’s wife Mai went there. She told me Maryam had wounds, a crack in a bone in her hand, a platinum implant in one of her legs and a fracture in the other.On 1 November, the Israeli army shelled the school we were in. We went out to the street, but they shelled the street, too. We went to neighbors and stayed one night with them. Then we stayed two nights in tents in the yard of the Ophthalmic Hospital in a-Nasser neighborhood. Then part of the hospital was shelled and we all choked on the dust that rose there. We had no choice but to walk to a-Shifaa Hospital, where I met Maryam. It was very hard to see her like that, wounded and bruised. We stayed there for a week. I took care of Maryam and of ‘Omar, who meanwhile came down with the flu.Then the Israeli army bombed the area of a-Shifaa and several of the hospital’s structures. On 10 November, we decided to go south. Maryam stayed with my uncle’s wife Mai, who was supposed to take her to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.We walked from a-Shifaa Hospital in the western part of Gaza City to the Salah a-Din road in the east, and from there to Netzarim Checkpoint in central Gaza. There were Israeli tanks there, and it was very frightening for the children and for us all. I saw that ‘Omar became terrified when he saw the soldiers.After we crossed the checkpoint, we took a car to Khan Yunis and got to the UNRWA DIP camp at 6:00 P.M. We met my sisters Raghdah, 38, and Hanan, 37, there. When we arrived, I was exhausted. I was so tired, I almost passed out. I started sobbing hysterically.The conditions at the DIP camp are very bad. We’re living in a tent. There’s no running water, no electricity and only a little food, mostly tinned.I’m especially worried about ‘Omar, who is without his family. My sisters and I are his new family. He keeps asking, over and over, “Who will I stay with?” and clinging to my sisters and me. When we’re not around, he gets scared. I hug him and take care of him, try to make him happy, and bring him toys and clothes. Every so often he cries and says to me, “I want my dad, I want my mom”, and asks about his grandparents. His eyes are sad all the time. Most of the time, he sits around sad and stares into space.The army and its fighter planes robbed us of our family. They killed everyone and turned ‘Omar and Maryam into orphans.Eleven members of the Lubad family were killed in the bombing:Muhammad Ahmad Lubad, 65, Manar’s fatherSuzan Khalil Lubad, 56, Manar’s motherTheir sons:Ahmad Muhammad Lubad, 35Yusef Muhammad Lubad, 33, his wife:Ghadah Lubad, 29, their son:Hamzah Yusef Lubad, 9 (‘Omar’s twin brother)Mahmoud Muhammad Lubad, 32, his wife:Walaa Lubad, 29, their only son:Ousamah Mahmoud Lubad, 1.5Ibrahim Ahmad Lubad, 40, Manar’s uncleMalek Lubad, 17, Manar’s cousin* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 24 December 2023