Before Israeli airstrikes in Gaza crushed the two-month ceasefire on March 18, there was a time when Huda Abu Teir and her family could almost believe that things might return to normal.
After fleeing from home to shelter for the refugees, six or seven displacements after fleeing to a tent, another shelter and another camp during the 15-month war – they returned to Abasan al-Kabila's house in southeastern Gaza, where they lived with Huda's grandparents.
Back home a few weeks ago, 19-year-old Huda threw a pizza party for her cousin, and one cousin, Fatma Al Showaff, 20. Huda, whose goal was to become a nurse, seemed to be constantly studying. But Huda retorted with a laugh that she likes to enjoy herself too.
The day before Israeli airstrikes resumed, Huda asked her uncle Noor. She taught technology. He said he had promised her a study session the next night.
However, around midnight, Hudah's brother Abdullah, 15, heard the explosion. “What?” he cried out to his father. He cried out to his father. He didn't have time to answer before the next explosion.
Abdullah was sent flying to the roof of his neighbor, he said. A fragment of the house he grew up smoldering around him. He felt a sharp pain in his right eye and could not see much. He could scream: “I'm here! Can you hear me?”
Awakened by the explosion and screams, the nearby cousin, Kasim, 35, sprinted down the streets, passing through the darkness. The four-storey home built by Huda and Abdullah's grandparents nearly 30 years ago, everything was falling apart, he said.
Using his cell phone as a flashlight, Kasim stepped inside and lay in Huda's grandmother, Shawqia, 63, shaved bleed. She wasn't moving.
Others who lived there were thrown outside by the force of the explosion, Kasim said. Everywhere people were bleeding from their noses and ears.
Huda was one of eight people killed along with her parents. Asmaa, 35, whenever Shokia went to Egypt for thyroid cancer treatment, all Abu Teia and 42-year-old Mohammed worked as security guards across the Rafa border for Hamas-led government.
Huda's cousin Anas, 13, was breathing when they found him. However, the ambulance did not arrive for nearly an hour, Kassim said.
Anas waited and died. His two young sisters, Jana (11 years old), and 6-year-old Leen and his mother, Fulla Abu Teir (29 years old), were also killed.
Shokia was also dead. Her husband, Suleiman, had died early in the war, a relative said when his heart condition burned after a nearby airstrike.
“We didn't expect such a massive attack to happen again,” Kasim said at the European Gaza Hospital near Khan Yunis. “We thought the battle had exhausted both sides, but that war never started again.”
Israeli forces said they targeted Hamas operatives who “stayed inside the building” on March 18, but identified the person and specified whether they meant Abteias' home. The family said there was no reason for the target.
Gaza has resumed counting daily deaths. Israeli airstrikes that night killed more than 400 people, and the barrage of the barrage has since killed another 600, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The province's figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but Hamas publicly announced the deaths of several senior officials in the first attack last month.
Israel has updated airstrikes on Hamas sites and operatives, saying it forced the group to release more Israeli hostages after Hamas He rejected the request of a new Israeli.
A New York Times investigation found that Israeli forces loosened rules regarding the number of civilians that could be at risk in their respective airstrikes to track Hamas fighter jets.
Gaza health officials say more than 50,000 people have been killed since the war began in October 2023. Israel's response has crushed the entire family, the whole neighborhood, Gaza's healthcare system, educational institutions, its infrastructure and much of its economy.
Huda's 15-year-old brother, Abdullah, had little knowledge of what happened that night two weeks ago. After the airstrike, he managed to push the broken water tank and the heating panel he had trapped aside, he said two days later. He woke up in the hospital, sang both eyes, his eyes still blurred.
No one told him that Huda had died or that his parents, or his sibling Maher, was in intensive care.
Abdullah was third of five. His father had collapsed due to his mother, cousin, when they were still teenagers. In a society where most marriages are organized, relatives described the visible kindness of Mohammed and Asmaa about the visible kindness of each other, said cousin Kasim.
Family was everything. Mohammed always threw big birthday parties for the kids. And when one of Mohammed's sisters, also known as Huda, was recovering from the C section, Asmaa soaked and cooked for her as if she were her sister, the sister recalled.
Qasim recalled that Mohammed had pride and burst when his eldest son Bayan got married. He jokingly asked Whoda if he wanted to marry him next, as did the Gaza girls, even before they graduated.
Huda jumped into anger, her sister Amira remembered. She was a child-like child who graffitied “future nurse hooda” in a notebook. She also loved weddings and shopping. I wore a stylish dress for skincare. However, marriage was possible.
Their grandmother was more traditional. Shokia was the family's backbone, distributing food cooked at home and helping her every time someone needed it and relying on her faith for the power, her family said.
Before the war, my family looked forward to the day before Ramadan every year. At that time, Shokia invited everyone to a huge meal in the garden before beginning her daily fasting in the Holy Moon. Her family recalled that Mahtool, a Palestinian couscous dish, was her specialty.
When Abu Teia was taking shelter in the southern city of Rafa early last year, Shokia created the habit of checking in every son and daughter's family in each tent, her daughter Huda said. She sat down, her grandson memorised the Quran poems and gave them dates and cookies.
At one point during the war, Abterle was evacuated to another family in central Gaza. Shawqia's husband Suleiman is grateful for his promise to pay them back when peace returns.
Suleiman died soon after. However, Shokia remembered their promise.
Earlier this month, she made several batches of Maftoll and asked one of her sons to deliver them to the family who hosted them. She was killed a week later.
