'I remember my uncle, whose death in Gaza we sometimes envied'

It was 6am on Saturday 7 October 2023. Half awake, I called out in a hoarse voice to my two sisters, who were sleeping on their beds next to me: "Enas, Remas, wake up-you have school."

- Malak A Tantesh

We did not know it yet, but this was the day when everything would change. The day when horrific events across the border in Israel would lead to a war that became a gateway to hell itself.

I went back to sleep not caring much about whether my sisters woke up or not. My university classes started a little later, at 8am.

Then suddenly I heard rockets firing. At first I was not sure whether I was still dreaming.

But soon my sisters and I were wide awake. At first we told ourselves they were test rockets and would fall into the sea, and didn't give it too much importance, but then the sound grew so loud it was impossible to ignore.

Rumours started spreading"maybe one of Hamas's top leaders was assassinated", "maybe Hamas was attacking Israel" - but everyone was guessing. Not comprehending what was happening, we waited for a confirmed piece of news.

My uncle and his family, who lived near the Israeli border, came still in their sleep-wear and looking extremely agitated. They were in a state of terror, with the interrupted sleep and their panicked departure visible on their faces.

Videos began to appear on social media showing Hamas storming into Israel, capturing dozens of people and taking them back to Gaza. We could not grasp the scale of what had just happened.

And then the Israeli response began: bombing in all directions.

The windows of the house trembled, as did our hearts, as we heard the sound of ambulances, all kinds of aircraft in the sky and the cries of children.

We had become used to war, and as in every war we had experienced, we started packing our belongings. We did not expect to be gone for long, so we only took one extra change of clothes and gathered our most important documents, putting them in our school bags.

On 13 October, the pace of bombing on Beit Lahia increased.