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BBCThey are smiling now as they play together on the sand at al-Mawasi’s tent in southern Gaza, but the children of the Masri family have survived the ordeal.
“Their lives were in danger, they faced a lot of killing and destruction,” says their grandfather Kawther al-Masri.
An Israeli bomb blast six weeks ago hit their home in the northern town of Beit Lahia, killing one-year-old Jamal’s parents and mother and his two younger cousins Maria, Jana and Zeina, aged two to nine. . The girls’ father was arrested by Israeli soldiers more than a year ago.
When the children were pulled out of the ruins, they were injured and alone.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, it is estimated that more than 14,500 children have been killed, thousands more have been injured and nearly 17,000 have been left unaccompanied or separated from relatives who can care for them.
Some are too young to know their names and are unknown.
In the chaos between the bombings and mass displacement, the UN children’s agency, Unicef, has managed to reunite only 63 children with their parents or guardians. Last month, the BBC followed the story of Masri’s four cousins.
“The joy of returning home is indescribable, but it is overshadowed by sadness – they returned without their parents,” said Kawther al-Masri.
Initially, the news that reached Kawther in mid-November was that all his loved ones who remained in their family home in northern Gaza had been killed. But he says that after praying, he heard that his three grandchildren are still alive.
He knew immediately that he had to bring them to him. “I was longing for them,” he explains. “To be honest, I would like to go north and take them, but God’s will is above everything.”
For more than a year now, Israel has divided the northern third of the Gaza Strip from the southern two-thirds along the valley line, Wadi Gaza. Aid workers must make a special agreement to cross the Israeli military zone and pass through the border.
After Mr. Kawther collected the documents he needed, Unicef did its own check and did the hard work of preparing the transfer of Masri’s children.
While the four bereaved cousins received medical treatment, their distant relatives took care of them. Unicef filmed them saying goodbye before taking the children away in armored vehicles.
The short distance from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah where the convoy is going now involves crossing Israeli checkpoints, it takes a long time to drive and it can be very dangerous as the war continues. However, Unicef says it is prioritizing child reunification.
“The challenges are many,” said Rosalia Bollen, a spokeswoman for Unicef. “But we’re talking here about children who are very vulnerable.”
“These are stories of loss – severe emotional trauma and physical trauma and for these children to heal. The fact that they are reunited with one or both parents, or a family member, is very important.”
Kawther describes the agonizing wait on the day the children were supposed to arrive until Unicef finally called. He had not seen his grandchildren for 14 months.
“I didn’t know who to hug first!” he shouts. “The first person I hugged was Jana and then Zeina. I kissed her and hugged her.”
“My son’s children used to call me ‘Kuko’ and although Zeina could not speak the last time I saw her, she knew that was my nickname. She kept asking: ‘Are you Kuko?’ and I told her that I was safe.
The story of the Masri family is not unusual. They were divided in the first days of the war.
A week after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel, the Israeli army ordered 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to move south, signaling that they were about to launch an offensive.
Kawther and many of his children quickly packed up and moved to Rafah, but the transport of his two sons, Ramadan and Hamza, crashed. They were able to stay behind with their wives – one of them was pregnant – and small children.
In November 2023, Hamza was arrested by Israeli soldiers in Beit Lahia. His close relatives insist that he and they are apolitical farmers. The BBC was unable to obtain any further information from the Israeli authorities on what happened to Hamza.
Israel has detained thousands of Gazans during the war, saying they are suspected of being terrorists.
“This has become our destiny,” Kawthar tells us despondently. “We lost our homes, our land and our loved ones, and we were divided between the North and the South.”
With so many unknown people, many go to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for help. It takes detailed information and reviews this with available sources, such as medical records and names of returned detainees.
More than 8,300 cases were reported to the agency but only about 2,100 were closed. Of these, only a few have resulted in family reunification.
“People are in limbo – they don’t know if their family member is alive, if they are injured or in hospital, if they are trapped under the rubble or if they will see them again,” says Sarah Davies from the ICRC.
Doctors and hospital staff are also involved in trying to reunite their patients with their loved ones.
Almost a year ago, the BBC filmed a newborn baby who was delivered by Caesarean section after his mother was killed on an Israeli plane. The hospital called the girl “Hanna Abu Amsha’s daughter” and they are keeping information about her in the hope that her family will find her.
Recently, the nursery at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah told us that the child was handed over to his father and is doing well.
A few days after the Masri family was reunited, a local journalist working for the BBC visited Kawther and his nephews in the al-Mawasi displaced persons camp where they now live in a tent. Due to the lack of aid, Unicef provided them with assistance in obtaining additional food and medicine.
The girls also had warm jackets – another protection from the freezing temperatures that have caused several children to die of hypothermia, including at the beach camp, near the city of Khan Younis.
Although Kawther is relieved to be with the children, he still feels safe. They worry about how to care for them and their mental health.
He said: “They are scared. “No matter how hard we try to distract the girls and avoid talking about the war, every now and then they wander in their minds.”
“When night came, he was afraid. They say: ‘There is a plane, it has crashed. He asks me: ‘Is it morning? and in the morning they begin to be calm.
Kawther says she is hoping for an end to the war and for her grandchildren to rebuild their lives. Not to be part of a lost generation.
