A 45-year-old father of four from Jabalya R.C. speaks about the killing of his son and nephew in a shelling and injury of other family membersMy wife and I and our five children, Adham, 19, who was killed, Samir, 15, Aya, 22, Raghad, 20 and Zeinah, 3, lived in Jabalya Refugee Camp with my mother Amneh, 78. The bombings in our area started on the first day of the war, but they weren’t very close so we didn’t leave. My sister-in-law Amal, 60, and her children, Diab, 40, who was killed, Hamzah, 35, and Su’ad, 28, were in the house with us too.On 28 October 2023, the bombings came within a few meters of our house. An entire neighborhood was destroyed and 25 people were killed from the Abu Namus, Abu Safiyah, a-Najar, Salman and Abu ‘Aydah families. Our house was partially damaged – walls, windows and doors – but we still didn’t leave, because there was nowhere to go. After a week or ten days, the bombing intensified again and we decided to leave. The women and children went to my brother’s house in the camp, which at least was still intact, and we men went to Kamal ‘Udwan Hospital. But the bombings intensified there too, and it was very crowded, so we decided to go back. We spent two days at home, and then moved to my 45-year-old sister Samira Baker’s house, about 50 meters away from ours. Two days later, we went back to our house. The women and children came back, too.







Sami ‘Awwadallah Baker. Photo: Olfat al-Kurd, B’Tselem, 17 Jan. 2024

On 15 November, my son Samir and I were out on the street when a nearby building was bombed. A fragment penetrated Samir’s eye. I took him to the eye hospital in Gaza City right away, where they removed the fragment and stopped the bleeding. But Samir’s vision in that eye was severely damaged. He was admitted to the hospital for a few days, and his older brother Adham stayed with him and walked him from the hospital in the a-Naser neighborhood to our house in Jabalya R.C. when he was discharged. He didn’t have any shoes and walked barefoot. After Samir was discharged, a nurse who lives in the camp came to our house to change his bandages.On 19 November, around 9:00 P.M., our house came under artillery fire. As I was sitting and listening to the news, the living room walls fell on top of me. I ran to the stairwell with the whole family. We stayed there for an hour until the shelling stopped and went back to the apartment, but the shelling resumed within a few minutes and a shell hit the roof. We heard shouting from the neighbors’ house and Adham and his cousin Diab went over there to help. I gathered the rest of the family and we went to a neighbor’s house about 100 meters away. The shelling grew worse and I was worried about Adham and Diab, so I went out looking for them. On the way, I was hit in the hand by a shot from an Israeli drone. I heard Adham and Diab shouting for help, but there was heavy shelling and I couldn’t reach them, even though they were about five meters away from me.I barely made it back to the house where the rest of the family was. Just as I walked in, a shell landed at the entrance to the house. We all hid in the stairwell for a few hours. My hand was bleeding the whole time.Around 6:00 A.M., I walked to Kamal ‘Udwan Hospital. There were a lot of injured people and dead bodies there. I waited several hours until they gave me first aid. I still have to have surgery on my hand, because I have a severed nerve. That whole time, I didn’t know what happened to Adham and Diab, until a friend of Adham’s came and told me that they were killed and their bodies were at the entrance to the hospital. I went out there immediately and was shocked when I saw the bodies. In the meantime, I found out my daughter Zeinah was also hit by a fragment in the head and was in the ICU at the same hospital. My other daughters, Aya and Raghad, were also hit by fragments in the legs, and a neighbor, Husam Hawilah, 37, was killed in the shelling.The whole family came to the hospital to say goodbye to Adham and Diab. Those were difficult moments. My brothers and I put their bodies on a donkey-drawn cart and went to bury them in the al-Falujah cemetery in the camp. The shelling continued while we buried them.Zeinah had surgery to remove the fragments and her condition stabilized. While she was hospitalized, we all stayed in the hospital. But then they said she needed a CT scan, which can’t be done there, and I managed to coordinate her transfer through the Red Crescent. My wife went south to Naser Hospital with our children, so Zeinah, Aya, Raghad and Samir could get treatment there.I stayed at Kamal ‘Udwan Hospital and my mother stayed at the house of my brothers Samir and Saber in Jabalya R.C. I kept up on how the girls were doing over the phone, and Zeinah’s condition stabilized in the meantime.On 29 November, I decided to move to southern Gaza. I was joined by an elderly woman, whose husband died at Kamal ‘Udwan Hospital and she wanted to go to her family in a-Nuseirat R.C. We rode in a car from the hospital to al-Kuwait Square. It cost 300 shekels (~ USD 80). At al-Kuwait Square we got on a donkey-drawn cart that took us to the Netzarim checkpoint. It was a half-hour ride.When we got to the checkpoint, I didn’t see any other people there. There was a bulldozer digging. Soldiers called me over and asked where I was going, and I told them. They indicated which way to go, and the woman and I walked from there until we found a car. She went to her relatives and I went to Khan Yunis, to the hospital. I reunited with my wife and children there and I was very happy to see that they were okay.I’ve been in Khan Yunis for about a month and a half now. I’m staying with friends and my wife and children are still in the hospital. The situation is very difficult. We have no money at all and no food. Prices are crazy. Samir isn’t getting any treatment for his eye because it’s not available here, and he can’t see with that eye now. I keep trying to find a way to get him out to Egypt so he can get treatment and his eye can be saved, but I don’t know if I’ll manage.* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 17 January 2024