‘Twice witness to Nakba’: 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 at the time.

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

Read more: ‘Twice witness to Nakba’: Gaza grandmother's story of survival and death in 1948 and 2024