Gaza: This 12-year-old dreams of combing her hair again after surviving an Israeli attack
Suddenly, an Israeli air strike detonated near the swing. Its force twisted the metal chains around her head, tearing off parts of her scalp along with her hair.
'My hair got stuck with the swing,' she recalls. 'The skin of my head was removed. I was rushed to the hospital. I stayed there for two months, but they couldn't treat me. The inflammations and ulcers only got worse.'
The first day they did surgery, they used 175 stitches to close her scalp.
'I woke up and saw myself without hair. I had a breakdown and fainted. My parents tried to reassure me. They said, 'Don't be afraid. You'll travel and get treatment. Your hair will grow again.' But I kept crying.'
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Before the bombing, Hala had prepared for Eid with excitement.
'I had bought ties for my hair and Eid clothes,' she says, her voice breaking.
'But I spent Eid in a hospital bed. I didn't feel the joy. I didn't wear the clothes. I was just... there.'
'We have been displaced six times'
Hala's father, Shukri Omar Eid Dehliz, speaks with the fatigue of a man shouldering the unbearable.
'We are originally from Rafah. We have been displaced six times. Our home was bombed and demolished. Each place we went, we could only stay for 20 days, a month, sometimes two. Now, we're in Khan Younis, al-Mawasi, living in a tent near the sea.'
Their tent stands on rented land they can 'barely afford'.
Hala Shukri Dehliz in Gaza with her siblings (Eman Alhaj Ali/MEE)
'Winter brings floods inside the tent. Summer is unbearable. There's no electricity, no solar panels. Even basic food is missing,' he said.
There is no bread. No medicine. No safety.
'Hala can't even take painkillers,' he says. 'She needs to eat before taking them, but there's no food. We survive on aid - mostly lentil soup. Every child gets one small plate per day. That's it.
'We are a family of seven. Some days we have only two pieces of bread. We divide them among us. The children cry for food. I have nothing to give them. It's a cruelty no parent should face. My child begs for bread, and I can't provide it. Sometimes, we just want to die instead of continuing this life in Gaza.'
A mirror without reflection
Hala's daily routine is now confined to the interior of a suffocating tent. She isolates herself from other children who react to her scarred head with confusion and fear.
'When I try to go outside, the children ask why I don't have hair. They get scared. So I stay inside. I play alone. I try to write and draw myself,' she says softly.
'When I try to go outside, the children ask why I don't have hair. They get scared. So I stay inside. I play alone'
- Hala Shukri Dehliz
'Every day, I stand in front of the mirror trying to comb my hair. But there is no hair to comb.'
Hala was a top student, dreaming of becoming a doctor - dreams now paused by trauma and the physical pain of untreated wounds.
'I was always the first in my class,' she remembers. 'I used to wake up early, comb my hair, go to school, then play with my friends. Now, I don't go to school. I look in the mirror and I just see loss.'
She still keeps a lock of her long brown hair, holding it as a reminder of who she was, and who she hopes to become again.
'I want to travel abroad and get treatment. I want to have my hair again. I want to play with my friends. I want to feel pretty again.'
'Gaza is starving to death'
Hala's father speaks in anguish about the daily torment and mounting famine which has in recent weeks led to a growing number of deaths from malnutrition and dehydration.
'There's no flour, no rice, no milk or vegetables. Even when there's food in the market, the prices are too high for us. My four-year-old cries for bread. I can't bear it.'
He recounts how their lives have shrunk into a punishing cycle of fear, hunger and helplessness.
Former UN aid chief: Israel committing 'worst crime of the 21st century' in Gaza Read More »
'The bombs fall constantly. The children scream in terror. Gaza is in a state of disaster. We are unemployed. The borders are closed. No aid is coming in. As parents, we demand the world to act. This genocide must stop.
'We are not asking for luxury. We are asking for the basics - bread, water, medicine. We are asking for a chance for our children to live.'
Hala's story is not an isolated tragedy. She is one of tens of thousands of children injured or killed in a war that has erased homes, schools and playgrounds, as well as whole families.
Border closures have blocked any attempt to evacuate her for treatment. Her parents - both injured in separate attacks - desperately try to find sterile gauze, clean water and food to support her healing.
'She needs daily medical care,' says her mother, Mayada. 'She cries every day, remembering her hair. Her head is still full of ulcers and infections. If she doesn't get out soon, it will get worse.'
Despite everything, Hala said she still dreams of a hospital bed in a foreign country where doctors will help her scalp heal. She dreams of brushing her hair and even one day becoming a doctor.
'I hope the world hears me. I hope someone helps me travel. I want my hair back. I want to be beautiful again.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Israel to resume aid airdrops to Gaza, vows safe passage for UN convoys
Israel's military said Saturday (July 26) that airdrops of aid to Gaza would resume overnight and that it would establish humanitarian corridors to guarantee safe transport for UN convoys of food and medicines. "Tonight, the (Israeli military) will resume the aerial airdrops of humanitarian aid, as part of ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza," it said, adding that the first drops would consist of seven pallets containing flour, sugar and canned food provided by international organisations.
Middle East Eye
5 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza famine: To be killed by an air strike is easier than watching your children starve
Each morning that dawns over the Gaza Strip brings nothing but more hunger, more collapse and a deepening sense of despair. For more than three months, over two million people have endured an unprecedented catastrophe - a true famine in every sense of the word - amid a merciless war, an unrelenting siege and an unforgivable international silence. Famine in Gaza has become a daily reality. It is no longer merely a sensation of deprivation; it manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion. Children, women, the elderly - no one is spared. We have witnessed, with our own eyes, bodies slumping on the pavement and lives lost outside the ruins of bakeries or at aid distribution points that never deliver. The price of a kilogram of flour has surpassed $30, while a kilogram of sugar now costs over $130. Most foods are either entirely unavailable or so scarce as to seem imaginary. The tragedy is not just in the prices, but in the absence of essential goods. People are not simply refusing to buy; there is nothing left to buy. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters There is no oil, no rice, no bread - not even a can of tuna. What appears occasionally might be a handful of red peppers or a bottle of dish detergent - a grim irony in the face of starvation. Famine in Gaza manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion Areas deemed "safe", such as northern Rafah or the Qataneh district, have turned into death zones. Starving civilians who head to these locations in search of aid are being targeted. According to the United Nations, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since late May while they were attempting to access food aid. Dozens continue to be killed each day. As former UN aid chief Martin Griffiths warned, this deliberate famine represents "the worst crime of the 21st century". Perhaps the most heart-wrenching image of all was that of the infant Yahya al-Najjar, just a few months old, who died of severe malnutrition. His tiny body was reduced to bones draped in translucent skin - a devastating sight, unfolding in full view of the world, in the heart of Palestine. Unbearable hunger We no longer speak of hunger in the abstract. Hunger is killing us in Gaza, but it is world leaders who should be dying of shame Read More » Children now cry out daily: "We want bread!" "We want to eat!" But no one feeds them. My young cousins, only five years old, wake at dawn begging their father to bring them a loaf of bread, but he cannot afford one. A single loaf has become a luxury. Some fathers have begun to flee their tents, unable to bear the look of disappointment in their children's eyes. I saw a mother praying for her children to die, simply because she could no longer feed them. Some mothers sit at the entrances of their tents, tears falling, whispering broken prayers: "Oh God, please take them... relieve them of this suffering." In the streets, people can no longer walk. They drag their bodies. So extreme is the weakness that their legs can no longer support them. Faces are hollow, stripped of life. The children are skeletal. The men, pale and gaunt, haul their bones in heavy silence. I saw with my own eyes an elderly man, over 70 years old, ask a young man who was eating a piece of bread to share it with him. Has hunger brought us to the point where our elders must beg for a bite? Those of us who are married can no longer provide food for our wives. For months now, I have stopped entertaining the thought of having a child, not out of choice, but because this genocide has made it impossible to imagine a future for them. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza Each morning, my wife asks: "What do we have to eat?" And I answer, swallowing the shame of being unable to protect the person I love: "I'm fasting today." We fast out of despair, not piety. We drink water - when there is any - and deceive ourselves with hope, if only to survive the day. Invented meals Our daily meals are invented out of nothing: lentils mixed with pasta, rice cooked over a wood fire or soup made from nothing but boiled water. We eat, then feel hungry again an hour later. We sleep to escape the hunger, but it wakes up with us. During the day, we grow dizzy. We fall silent. We comfort one another with words. We nap, hoping the pain might ease. I have lost 14kg, and I am still fighting. But what of those with no job? No money? No one to lean on? In the street, under the blazing July sun, a child stares longingly at a vendor selling iced water. A cup costs half a dollar, but no one can afford it. There is no electricity, no fan, no shade - just thirst thick in the air. Someone walks by eating a sandwich, and five or 10 children, perhaps even elderly men, gather around, asking for a bite. It is not greed that drives them, but sheer desperation - because they are human, and hunger has taken everything else. The markets, where they still exist, are empty. Nasser Hospital, the last remaining lifeline in southern Gaza, has become a gathering point for those struggling to survive. There is no medicine or food - nothing but the screams of mothers, the tears of patients and those on the brink of starvation or death. Silent massacre Death no longer frightens anyone in Gaza. For many, it has become a dream. To be killed by shrapnel or an air strike is easier than dying while watching your children writhe in agony from hunger or your wife unable even to stand. Death is no longer the end; it is a release. The world sees and hears, but does nothing, as if our lives are not worthy of living What is happening in Gaza today is not a natural disaster. It is a deliberate famine - a massacre carried out in silence, as people waste away unseen. The population is being starved - slowly, cruelly, by design. At the same time, infrastructure is being destroyed. Hospitals are being bombed. Civilians are being killed as they crowd around aid lorries filled with flour, and the world watches from behind its screens, unmoved by any sense of humanity. This is Gaza now: a city untouched by light, inhabited by people waiting for the end. They do not ask for miracles, just some bread, some medicine and some dignity. The world sees and hears, but does nothing, as if our lives are not worthy of living. We do not write to weep, but to report the truth as it is: Gaza is choking from hunger, drowning in darkness and being annihilated in full view of the world. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
The National
a day ago
- The National
GoFundMe-backed Gaza Soup Kitchen struggles to feed starving Palestinians as supplies run out
On a warm Saturday morning in Gaza city, Saleh Sadda, 10, joins hundreds of others holding pans and waiting for food at a soup kitchen. It is the only reliable source of nourishment for his family of five, displaced from the north of the enclave and now living near Gaza's port, once a centre for trade, now a place of survival. 'Every day I get food from the soup kitchen for my family,' Saleh told The National. 'We come here because we have no money. Prices are high, people have no food.' The Gaza Soup Kitchen has been a lifeline for many since it launched in February last year, offering hot meals to thousands of people every day. But it is now struggling, as food runs out in the enclave. Until recently, the operation served meals at 10 locations, including in Sheikh Radwan, Shati camp, Al Nasr, Rimal and its northernmost spot, Al Saftawi. This week, only five locations could open. Some are operating at just 70 per cent capacity because ingredients are increasingly scarce. 'It's difficult to secure supplies,' said Samah Almadhoun, one of the lead chefs, as she prepared lentils and carrots. 'Sometimes things aren't available, or they're too expensive.' The kitchens have about 60 staff. Samah cooked alongside her husband and children, while her sister Fatin prepared rice and macaroni at a separate site. Their mother made mulukhiyah, a leafy green vegetable soup, in a bare building before distributing it to families nearby. 'Yesterday we made rummaniyeh [lentil and eggplant stew],' Samah said. 'We make vegetable soup with bulgur or rice. We make summaghiyyeh [sumac stew]. Whatever we find in the market, we buy and cook.' Global support, local impact Despite the hardship, the kitchens have continued to operate amid Israel's war on Gaza, thanks in part to a GoFundMe campaign launched by Samah's brother, Hani, a Palestinian-American who lives in Virginia. The campaign has raised over $4 million so far, funds used to buy ingredients such as cooking oil and support staff in Gaza. Their family, based in the north of Gaza, paid a heavy price in the war. Two of Hani's brothers have been killed. Four of his nieces are dead. Two more were critically injured. He said everyone he knows is displaced, and many are starving. Born in the UAE, Hani, 44, is senior director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA, which provides support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. His family moved to Gaza when he was still in school to reconnect with their roots. Later, he earned a master's degree in public administration and a bachelor's degree in international and Latin American studies from Brigham Young University, before settling in Washington, DC. There, he began fundraising for civil rights groups, Arab and Muslim-American organisations, and Palestinian relief efforts. Now living in Annandale, Virginia, Hani brings his fundraising experience to the Gaza Soup Kitchen. 'My brother, Mahmoud, and his friends started it in Beit Lahia to serve hot meals to neighbours,' he said. They began with four pots and a fire fuelled by scavenged wood. They dug up potatoes, bought tomato paste and cooking oil, and within hours, 120 families were fed. The next day, they served 150. Word spread quickly and demand surged. Mahmoud went out again, this time returning with leafy greens, onions and mushrooms, and cooked another nourishing dish. Hani launched the GoFundMe campaign and by July 2024, the Gaza Soup Kitchen was officially registered as a non-profit group in the US. Transferring funds into Gaza remains a major challenge. Hani sends $15,000 every morning, navigating a complex and costly process. 'The funds go into our Gaza Soup Kitchen's US bank account,' he explained. 'From there, we use a mix of digital platforms and cash apps to move the money. But there are daily limits, so we have to use several methods.' Once the money reaches exchange shops in Gaza, it is handed to Hani's family, after a hefty cut is taken. The fees range from 25 per cent to 40 per cent, meaning a $1,000 transfer might result in only $600 in cash being received. With no new bank accounts allowed in Gaza, the soup kitchen cannot open a local account, Hani added. As Israel's war continues, Gaza's food supply is disappearing. Sugar now costs $100 per kilogram. A single kilogram of flour costs about $20. Aid is trickling in. Exchange fees, inflated prices and disrupted supply chains are making it harder to stretch every dollar. 'Unfortunately, that's the price you pay to keep people from starving,' Hani said. 'It's worth it because in some communities, children are collapsing from hunger. The elderly too.' Despite the millions raised, not all the funds have been transferred yet. So far, more than $2 million in cash has made its way into Gaza to keep the kitchens running. 'The bottleneck is how much we can send in a day,' Hani explained. 'If I could wire $1 million tomorrow, I would. But because of the limitations in the bank, we are only able to send a certain amount.' He sends only what is needed to keep operations going, carefully balancing against fees and local prices. Some of the funds are also used to distribute drinking water and offer medical support. In one case, Hani recalled, a person collapsed while waiting for food. 'We have a medical point next to one of our kitchens," he added. "Our doctors hooked them up to an IV because it was too late for a meal. They needed medical intervention.' Cooking through scarcity Sourcing ingredients is another daily struggle, as Israel has severely limited how much food is allowed into the enclave. 'We do not bring anything from outside. This is not our model,' Hani said. 'What we do is two things: we buy from the few farmers still growing produce – about 5 per cent of farms are functional – and we source locally from what's left in the market.' The team, which is based in the north, gathers ingredients from the south of Gaza. They send people to carry bags filled with produce to the north. 'Secondly, there is no supermarket any more,' Hani explained. "There are stalls in the market. We ask around: 'Hey, I need 100kg of lentils. Do you have it?' The guy says, 'Yes, we have a dealer for lentils. We have a dealer for cooking oil.' Whatever we can get, we buy and cook.' In winter, they cook with foraged greens such as mallow. Right now, the team is struggling to find basic staples including potatoes and carrots. More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and Oxfam, have warned that mass starvation is spreading across Gaza. On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said a 'large proportion' of Gaza's population was starving. 'I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation – and it's man-made,' he said. Israel, however, denies blocking aid. 'In Gaza today, there is no famine caused by Israel,' said government spokesman David Mencer. 'There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas.' For Hani, the goal is simple, and heartbreaking. 'I just want the genocide to end,' he said. 'I'm fine with closing shop. We only exist to solve a problem. If the problem is being handled by others, we'll step back. But right now, this work gives our team purpose. They're exhausted, but every day they cook and feel inspired. And everybody just wants that purpose.'
