Hadeel Al Gherbawi was seven months pregnant when the war started in October 2023. Up until that point the 26-year-old had meticulously prepared for her son\u2019s arrival. She visited her doctor twice a month because the pregnancy was high risk, had regular ultrasounds and took vitamins. \u201cI love the details,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Living on the east side of Gaza City, close to the border with Israel<\/a>, and knowing that being pregnant would make moving fast difficult, she decided to go to her parents in the west of Gaza City that first day. \u201cI thought it was just going to be a few days and I would go back.\u201d<\/p>\n The family has since been displaced<\/a> 13 times and the house she shared with her husband has been destroyed.<\/p>\n In late October, about five weeks before her due date, Al Gherbawi was near a massive Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza<\/a> City. \u201cIt felt like an earthquake,\u201d she remembers. She fled to al-Shifa hospital, where displaced people filled every space. Using a bathroom was nearly impossible.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t forget the horror of that night,\u201d she says. There was a place for unidentified bodies and a barrel for body parts. The strike had reportedly killed more than 100 people<\/a>. Al Gherbawi remembers the smell. \u201cI couldn\u2019t take it. I was pregnant. I felt sick \u2026 may God have mercy on those who were killed.\u201d<\/p>\n People are treated at al-Shifa hospital after being injured in an Israeli airstrike on another hospital in October 2023. Photograph: Anadolu Agency\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Al Gherbawi and her husband decided it was safer to go south to have her baby. In displacement camps, using the bathroom<\/a> remained a nightmare. She would wake someone to accompany her frequently during the night.<\/p>\n Too scared to go into labour naturally, because finding transportation, especially during the night, would be difficult, she asked doctors at Nasser hospital in the city of Khan Younis to induce her. When the nearby building was struck while she was in labour, she feared panic and chaos could lead to her baby being mixed up with another and asked her mother to keep watch. She describes feeling \u201cfear, unbearable fear\u201d.<\/p>\n After Jawad was born, Al Gherbawi moved to a rented flat, sleeping in a room with 30 people. She couldn\u2019t find painkillers for her stitches and quietly endured her pain at night so as not to wake others. She believes she also had postnatal depression. \u201cMy face was pale, I was weak, frail and my hair was falling [out].\u201d<\/p>\n At first I was shocked and upset. How am I going to bring another child into this world while living in a tent?<\/p>\n A few months later, they moved to a tent. \u201cIt was the first time that I lived in a tent,\u201d she says bitterly. \u201cThe sand, the insects.\u201d She worried constantly that Jawad would be stung. She hugged him at night and woke frequently to check he was still alive: she had heard about newborns freezing to death.<\/p>\n Then, when Jawad was nine months old, Al Gherbawi found out she was pregnant again. \u201cAt first I was shocked and upset,\u201d she says. \u201cHow am I going to bring another child into this world while living in a tent?\u201d<\/p>\n The January 2025 ceasefire<\/a> brought brief hope. \u201cI can\u2019t describe how happy I was,\u201d she says. Despite being in her first trimester and against everyone\u2019s advice, she insisted on walking back north to her flat. She and her husband spent a cold night sitting on the pavement of the coastal road waiting for the checkpoint to open. Finally, they reached their home, with Jawad\u2019s blue room and the decorations she had hung before the war.<\/p>\n Jawad, who was born at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis soon after the war started. Photograph: supplied<\/p>\n