'Something is destroyed inside Palestinians and I'm not sure if it can be healed'

Amani Ahmed left Gaza as war broke out and was apart from family for months. She tells Alex Croft about life in the UK

- Alex Croft

When Amani Ahmed left Gaza for the UK to study, she never imagined being forcefully separated from her family for six months.

Nor did she foresee the anguish of going through a pregnancy alone while living more than 2,000 miles away from her husband and three children, as online footage of Israeli bombs raining down around her family home in Gaza City tormented her daily.

Just five days after Amani left to pursue a PhD in Edinburgh, Israel unleashed a bombing campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attacks, in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Israel has killed 48,219 Palestinians in its devastating response, the Gaza health ministry says. Every day, Amani counts herself lucky that her family were among the survivors – but in the months isolated from her family, life was unbearable.

“Will I be able to hug them again? Will I be able to see them and to calm them?” were among the relentless thoughts on her mind throughout an agonising six-month wait for her family’s evacuation.

“I had depression. I wasn’t able to wake up and do things, I was in a situation that is dangerous. I thought that I have to help myself,” she recalls of the terrifying months her family were trapped in the war-torn enclave. "I wasn't there and I couldn't do anything, I found myself helpless. I really don't wish any mother to have such an experience."