Gaza grandmother's story of survival and death in 1948 and 2024

Halima Abu Dayya thought she lived the worst day of her life when Zionist militias expelled her from her home during their ethnic cleansing campaign of Palestine in 1948, known to Palestinians as the Nakba. 

But that day turned out to be merely a glimpse of the hardships she endured during the ongoing Israeli campaign of bombardment, starvation and forced displacement in Gaza. Hardships that eventually led to her death in Gaza City, according to her family.

Middle East Eye spoke to the grandmother, a resident of Gaza City, in 2018, when she was 91. Then, she recalled her forced displacement from her home in Dayr Sunayd, a village in the Gaza subdistrict, as Zionist massacres and destruction of Palestinian towns paved the way for the creation of the state of Israel. 

“We were forced at gunpoint to get in cars that drove us to a place near the borders with Gaza, where we stayed for three days, and then were moved again to the Gaza Strip,” Abu Dayya told MEE.

“I had three children and was pregnant when we were displaced. It was the hardest day of my entire life.”

As the ongoing, year-long Israeli war on Gaza escalated, MEE contacted Abu Dayya’s family for another interview. 

The family said Abu Dayya was displaced over 10 times in nearly seven months. They struggled to provide her with food during the Israeli-triggered famine in northern Gaza earlier this year, as she couldn’t eat the bread made from animal fodder - the only food available at the time.

And ultimately, she passed away.

Read more: Gaza grandmother's story of survival and death in 1948 and 2024