When the war breaks out in October 2023, Hamada and the family stay in their house at first, but they end up evacuating quite quickly. They are then displaced seven times.
In November, while they are still in the north, in Beit Lahia, they narrowly survive a bombing and decide to head south to Khan Younes.
On January 7, 2024, more than 80 members of Hamada’s extended family are killed in a matter of seconds under the bombs. This massacre is reported in Arabic-speaking media. Hamada, Asmaa, and the children survived because they were not staying in the same place as them. Asmaa also loses almost all of her family. They remain with Hamada’s parents and siblings.
Every day, they have to find something to eat, find water, live under the drones and bombs… but also live in overcrowded conditions, with insomnia, and constant fear. When a missile falls on them without exploding and they miraculously survive once again, they finally move to Rafah. Thanks to his past as a truck driver, Hamada volunteers to transport the little humanitarian aid that enters through the border point to the NGO shelters. Transporting aid also means transporting the wounded – often children. And being at greater risk of being targeted. However, thanks to this, the family has access to a little more water.
He would later confide in me after his return that, during the six months he spent in the horror, he had to go twice through an entire week without eating anything at all. More emaciated than ever, he “waits for death.” Until the day when a way out of Gaza becomes possible. Just a few days earlier, Hamada lost his best friend, killed under the bombs. The “joy” of leaving hell would be mixed with this infinite grief.
Since they left Gaza at the end of March 2024, his parents and siblings are still alive. One of his 15-year-old nephews was killed in July 2025, and his mother was seriously injured. The beautiful family home has been completely destroyed. They have been living in makeshift tents for nearly two years, with no humanitarian aid reaching them.fortune, sans entrée d’aide humanitaire.
Hamada will spend one month with Asmaa, Yamin, Line, and Reem in Egypt, before returning to Belgium (as he cannot work there to support them). Since then, no solution has yet been found to reunite them. However, thanks to your donations, the children in Egypt will be able to continue living under a roof, go to school, eat properly, and have access to medical care in order to rebuild their lives.
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