'My cousin, 6, has only known life of terrifying bomb raids blasting Palestine'

19 October 2023 , 08:10

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Alia pictured with her mum in Gaza as a child (Image: Alia Al Ghussain)

A Palestinian living in London says her young cousin in Gaza has only ever known a life of bombing raids.

Alia Al Ghussain, 31, spent her summers in Gaza and says she has fond memories of the city, including going to the beach for barbecues and playing games. That stopped in 2000 with the second intifada, a major uprising against Israel lasting until 2005. Now Alia, from south east London, says her family remaining there have lost their homes to bombings and are now struggling to find food and water. Tragically, her young cousin has only known a life of bombings.

She told MyLondon : "It's really heartbreaking - I still have family there. I have an aunt and two cousins, which are her two kids. Then I have an uncle who has four kids so that's my connection with it. I have cousins who were born after the beginning of the siege which was after 2008, they've never left the Gaza strip.

Alia Al Ghussain, 31, spent her summers in Gaza (Alia Al Ghussain)

Alia, pictured with her aunt, says her home was destroyed (Alia Al Ghussain)

"They've never gone anywhere else and have lived in the tiny enclave their whole life. My youngest cousin is about six and oldest is 15 - they've lived through several bombing campaigns that Israel has carried out on the Gaza strip so it's not like things were fine before October 7,

“What I remember really clearly is the water supply in Gaza when we went was also really bad. People didn't have water 24 hours a day like we do. I remember one afternoon there wasn't any water in my grandma's flat and we went to the roof of the flat where me and my cousins would hang out and you could see over to the settlement [Israeli] areas - they had swimming pools and sprinklers. That difference even as a kid was incredibly stark - it was never a place where I felt things were right, it always felt like injustice was happening."

Israeli army kills nine Palestinians including elderly woman in brutal raid

She added she knows her aunt’s house was destroyed by a bomb. Her cousins lived in a flat near the government building were told to leave as it was a high risk area and their flat has also been destroyed.

She added: “If they were in the building they would have died because of the airstrike. They got a notice saying to leave as that area would be targeted - if they had been there it's unlikely they would have survived. My uncle also lived near a building which got bombed.

"Last week on Friday when the evacuation order came for Northern Gaza they decided to go to Deir Al Balah in the middle of Gaza to stay for a bit. They went with other family members and there were 16 people staying in a one bedroom house. There wasn't any peace before, it was an open air prison. It's important to understand wider context."

Antony Thrower