“In a matter of seconds, my life turned upside down”.
For Sanaa Kamal, life in the Gaza Strip has been far from “normal”. Gone are her regular routines of having tea on the balcony with her mother, her daily commutes to work by the Mediterranean Sea, or celebratory moments with her family.
Instead, it is a life surrounded by death and war, as Sanaa and her 20 family members try to survive and evacuate to safety in Egypt. In a series of video recordings and interviews done via voice notes with The New Arab journalist @alexander.durie, Sanaa’s story provides a rare, intimate insight into daily life in Gaza, and how much it has changed for Palestinians since October 7.
Sanaa and her family are one of 1.6 million Palestinians who have sought safety in the border city of Rafah after Israeli attacks forcibly displaced them from their home in Gaza City. Now, she says, “we have nowhere left to go”.
