'My children are under fire': a Palestinian man’s plea to reunite with his family

Saed Hassunah is desperately attempting to reach his five children who are in Gaza city under Israeli shelling

Saed Hassunah with his wife, Amna Homeid and four of their children in northern Gaza. Photo: Saed Hassunah

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“My children are under fire and I can’t do anything to save them. They have no one,” said Saed Hassunah, a desperate father who is only a kilometre away from his children but is unable to reach them because of an intense Israeli offensive nearby.

Mr Hassunah, a 35-year-old journalist and activist, is currently in Gaza's Deir Al Balah and has been unable to reach his family since they were separated in March but is sparing no efforts to reunite with his five children.

He found out from television that his wife and eldest son had been killed in an Israeli air strike on April 24. Since then, his other children have been in Gaza city where there is heavy fighting.

“I am one kilometre away from them, they are only a 10-minute car ride away from me, but I’m unable to get to them. They’ve lost their mother, they have nothing,” Mr Hassunah told The National.

His five children – Ali, 10, Mohammed, nine, Amir, five, Ghana, four, and nine-month-old baby Duha – are with his 55-year-old mother who is suffering from severe health complications and is unable to adequately take care of them or ensure their safety.

“My mother needs someone to look after her, she can’t do anything. We are talking about a nine-month old baby and four other kids,” he said as his voice was breaking.

“They need someone to get food, water and to take care of them. The only person that can do this is me, their father,” he said.

Israel in recent days has intensified its attacks on Gaza city where his children are currently living with their grandmother. In the last month alone, they have moved at least five times in pursuit of somewhere safe but “nowhere is safe in Gaza”, said the desperate man who is trying to reunite with his children.

The Israeli army says it is targeting Hamas militants in the area, and has once again ordered residents to leave. Wednesday witnessed a second night of deadly strikes in Deir Al Balah and nearby refugee camps, with more than 29 people killed overnight.

Mr Hassunah said Gazans have witnessed unimaginable and indescribable scenes during the last nine months of war.

He says he has reached out to several international aid agencies such as the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross for help but is yet to hear back.

“I have made hundreds of calls to different agencies, all I want to do is be reunited with my children. They need me, they need help,” he said.

Separation by detention

Mr Hassunah was separated from his children and wife in March while seeking shelter inside Al Shifa Hospital.

“I was detained by the Israeli forces and stripped off my clothes in front of my family. It was humiliating. I was taken in for interrogation and was tortured. They did not provide us with food, water and going to the bathroom was prohibited,” he said.

This was the second time Mr Hassunah was detained, with the first being in December.

He suffered a nervous breakdown after his first release as he searched for his family but was able to reunite with them.

However, the second time around, the Israeli army forced him to walk to the south after he was released in April. He was unable to establish contact with his family during that period.

“After nearly 40 days of separation, my family moved more than four times until they sought safety in Al Shati camp, in the western part of Gaza city,” he said.

That was when he found out the devastating news while watching the daily news.

“On April 24, Amna’s torn body lay in the rubble of the house they were in. I found out while watching TV, my eldest son Mahdi, who was 11 years old, was also killed. My five other children were injured in the attack but they survived,” he said.

He could not attend his wife or son’s funeral. “There are no words to describe my feelings.”

His second eldest son, Ali, is unable to speak to him over the phone because of the trauma he endured after his mother and brother were killed.

“They keep going from place to place, every minute, every hour their situation is getting worse and worse.”

In the first days of the war, a strike hit his home on October 25, and Mr Hassunah's family were the only ones that made it out alive.

“All our neighbours died in the attack, we were found under the rubble but we lost everything, our personal items, our memories,” he said.

Mr Hassunah said his family, like thousands of others in the Gaza Strip, have experienced so many traumatic events that he is unsure how long it will take to regain some degree of normality.

“No matter how much I can speak, it's going to take years to get the picture across. Anything and everything that you can imagine, from phycological trauma we have experienced,” he said

The Gazan said civilians have forgotten what life looked like before October 7.

“I just want to relieve my children's trauma of witnessing losing their mother in a brutal way, this is torture. The war must end, those who are paying the price are women and children.

“This war has taken everything from us, how much more bloodshed will it take to stop this war?".