From the Nakba to Gaza's ruins: One man's lifetime of displacement

"Inside his partially destroyed home in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, 85-year-old Abdel Mahdi al-Wuheidi sits beside a small fire brewing coffee, staring at what remains of a life, now surrounded by rubble. Next to him sits his wife, Aziza, also in her 80s, whom he married six decades ago. Despite years of trying, the couple was never able to have children. Today, they live together with the five sons of Abdel Mahdi's late brother."

"Born in 1940, Abdel Mahdi was only a child when the 1948 Nakba the mass expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their home at the founding of the state of Israel unfolded. And yet, despite living through that pain and trauma, he says that what Palestinians are enduring today, brought on by Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, surpasses anything he has ever witnessed. We are from Bir al-Saba [Beersheba] that was our homeland, he says in a tired voice."

"Abdel Mahdi's sharp memory carries him back to his childhood, living with his parents on their land, among their livestock and property a normal life, before everything changed. Abdel Mahdi says he still remembers the heated discussions among families in Bir al-Saba when news first spread that Zionist Haganah militias were approaching, with some wanting to flee, and others insisting on staying. The decision was eventually made to leave for Gaza, to the west, with the hope of returning in a few weeks."

"Today, they live together with the five sons of Abdel Mahdi's late brother. They were children when their father died, and Abdel Mahdi raised them and helped them to marry and start families of their own. Despite years of trying, the couple was never able to have children, so the family they built centered on the sons he took in after his brother’s death."

Abdel Mahdi al-Wuheidi, 85, lives in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza beside his wife Aziza, making coffee over a small fire in a partially destroyed home. Born in 1940, he was a child during the 1948 Nakba, when Zionist forces captured Bir al-Saba and forced much of its Palestinian population out. He recalls family debates about whether to flee as Haganah militias approached, and the eventual decision to leave for Gaza with hopes of returning soon. He later raised his late brother’s five sons and helped them marry and start families. He says Israel’s war in Gaza has brought suffering beyond what he witnessed in 1948.

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