My name is Mohammed Al-Taweel, I am 23 years old. I am from the Bureij camp in central Gaza. My dream is to finish my English degree, but the Israeli war displaced my family and took everything from us. Now, I cut hair to provide my family with funds to maintain our tent.
I completed high school several years ago, but due to financial circumstances, I couldn't continue into university. I taught myself to be a hairdresser and worked as a barber in several salons in the Al-Bureij refugee camp. I managed to save some money and enrolled in Al-Aqsa University three years ago, majoring in the English language. I reached the third level, until the Israeli war on Gaza deprived all students of education, robbing us from an entire academic year.
The war not only deprived us of our right to continue education, but we also wasted a whole academic year, which forced me to return to being a barber. I haven't cut hair since the beginning of my university education. I used to give private English lessons to students, and I was happy because I managed to enroll in university and was close to achieving my dream. But the bombing, killing, destruction, and displacement that the people of Gaza have endured has been our only situation for the past 8 months straight.
Our house is in Block 12 in Al-Bureij camp, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. I live there with my family of 7, including my brother and his wife. My father used to work inside the occupied Palestinian territories, known among Palestinians as 'Israeli workers,' but since the beginning of the Second Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the occupation deprived Gaza residents of work, canceled all their work permits, and left my father unemployed. We only survive on the aid we receive from UNRWA every few months.
My family endured difficult living conditions. My father couldn't find work. All men in Gaza suffer from a lack of job opportunities due to the ongoing Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has lasted over 18 years. The repeated Israeli wars on the Strip have also caused extensive damage to the economy, harmed employers, and greatly reduced job opportunities in the private sector.
The occupation bombed dozens of houses adjacent to ours since the beginning of its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, but we didn't leave our house. My father insisted that we stay and not go to live in tents. But the Israeli forces announced the invasion of the central governorate camps in Gaza and issued warning notices asking us to evacuate to Deir al-Balah city. The neighborhood we lived in was invaded by the occupation forces. We were forced to flee and to live in tents in Deir al-Balah city in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
We unwillingly left our house after the intensification of Israeli shelling on Al-Bureij camp, where the occupation destroyed large residential squares in the camp during the first two months of the war. We love our home; my father built it with great difficulty. But the occupation forced us out of it with the power of intense aerial bombardment. We left our home hoping to return to it soon. We didn't know then that we would never be able to return to it as it was destroyed by the occupation.
The occupation forces continued to invade the camps in the middle of the Strip for about a month, the period we spent in displacement tents. We followed the news daily and learned that the occupation had caused unprecedented destruction in Al-Bureij camp. After their withdrawal, we returned to our house but found it demolished. The occupation forces had demolished our house and all neighboring houses. We found nothing but rubble. The occupation's machinery drastically changed the landscape of our neighborhood and destroyed dozens of houses during its incursion into Al-Bureij camp, killing and injuring hundreds.
When we left our house to escape the Israeli airstrikes, we thought we would only have to live in displaced people's tents for a short time. However, after our house was destroyed, the tent became our primary home, where 9 of us would live. We've endured many difficult days during the winter; the rain was heavy, and the cold was extreme, in addition to insect infestations.
We lived in tents in Deir al-Balah for a month. After the Israeli forces withdrew from the camps in the central Gaza Strip - Al-Bureij, Al-Maghazi, and Al-Nuseirat - we went to the Al-Nuseirat camp. We are currently living in a tent inside an UNRWA school for displaced people in the middle of Al-Nuseirat.
Life in the tent is very difficult; there is no food to eat, and no water. Environmental pollution has spread widely, and waste is scattered everywhere. municipalities can’t transport waste to other places. We use public bathrooms, which are used by thousands of displaced people living inside the school.
We thought we were safe inside the school, but Israeli forces have bombed the school twice. Our tent is in the schoolyard, and the Israeli airstrikes targeted the schoolyard, very close to our tent. But thankfully, we were spared from the bombing, although dozens of displaced people inside the school were killed or injured.
My family, like all Gazan families, suffered from the many Israeli massacres during this war, the longest war on the Palestinian people, the most painful and destructive war. My uncle's wife was martyred in an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the war. The occupation bombed my aunt's house during the first month of the war, and most of those in the house, mostly children and displaced people, were martyred. The occupation also bombed the house of the elder of our family in Al-Nuseirat camp, Abu Al-Saeed, and more than 30 women, children, and elderly were also martyred in the bombing.
The bodies of our family remained under the rubble for several days, as there is no equipment in Gaza to extract bodies, and the occupation completely stopped the entry of fuel during the first two months of the war. The central governorate relied on only one machine to extract bodies and search for the missing, serving more than 300,000 Palestinians living in the camps in the central Gaza Strip. After a week of bombing, our turn came. We retrieved all the bodies and buried them in mass graves in the camp.
My aunt's husband was injured in an Israeli airstrike during the war. He had been suffering from chronic diabetes for a while and was receiving regular treatment. Due to the injury, he suffered major complications, and gangrene spread throughout his body. He was martyred due to his injury after the occupation deprived him of his right to treatment.
The war forced me to return to working as a barber. I had left that job three years ago when I started university. But now, I'm compelled to work in this profession to help my family with their expenses. We only receive one food assistance package every week or every 10 days, which isn't sufficient. Moreover, prices in the markets have increased significantly, more than tenfold than what they were before the war.
I took my barber tools with me before we left our house. I worked as a barber during our stay in the displacement tents in Deir al-Balah city, and then continued working in the displaced people's school in Al-Nuseirat camp. I wake up early every morning, sit at a small table in the schoolyard, and provide haircuts to displaced people.
Before the war, haircut prices varied, but I significantly reduced the pricing now. Haircuts for children aged 7 to 14 are priced at 3 Israeli shekels, while for adults, it's only 5 shekels, and haircuts with a beard trim are priced at 8 shekels only. I feel it's my duty to stand by the people and not exploit them in these difficult circumstances. I provide haircuts to around 8 people daily, and the money I earn is not enough to provide my family with a single meal, but it covers the necessities for our tent, which has now become our home.
Three years ago, I began working towards my dream of enrolling in university and studying the English language, which I love. I reached the third level, and I only had one year left until I obtained my bachelor's degree in English from Al-Aqsa University. But the Israeli war stopped everything in Gaza. The occupation bombed and destroyed universities and schools, depriving us of our right to education.
My dream is for the war to end soon, for us to rebuild our house and return to living in Al-Bureij camp, where I was born, raised, and spent my childhood and youth. I hope for students to return to their schools soon, and for the Ministry of Education to find a way to salvage the academic year we lost.
I am now working as a barber because of the circumstances of the war. I left the school desks due to the occupation's policy aimed at impoverishing Gaza's residents and destroying life in all aspects of the Strip. We live in a tragic and painful reality in Gaza. But what we've witnessed and experienced in this war, we haven't seen throughout our lives. The war must stop, psychological support must be provided to Gaza's children, reconstruction must happen as soon as possible, and the occupation must be held accountable for all the genocidal crimes it has been committing for the eighth consecutive month.
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Since Oct. 7, more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza. Another 10,000 are estimated to be buried under the rubble. Over 2 million people have been displaced from their homes.
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