BAGHDAD, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — Reem Mohammed Abu Taha sat on her hospital bed with tears in her eyes as she watched the television news filled with images of relentless bombings and an ever-increasing death toll in Gaza.

“Over 40,000 innocent Palestinians have died. How many more must die before this war ends?” she asked in a trembling voice.

Abu Taha lives in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. In May, she and her three surviving children were among the first group of 27 injured Palestinians and their 42 companions brought to Baghdad by the Iraqi government for treatment.

Although they were far from their homeland, their hearts remained in Gaza, where many of their relatives still live under constant threat.

Abu Taha’s life was shattered in the early morning of December 7, 2023. Without warning, Israeli airstrikes targeted the five-story building where her family lived.

“There were two apartments on each floor, and about ten people lived in each apartment. We were all at home, unaware, when the rockets hit,” she recalls.

The Israeli rockets reduced her house to rubble and claimed 24 lives in her household, including her eldest son, 19-year-old Mohammed.

“Mohammed was a brilliant child and studied engineering at Al-Aqsa University. He had a bright future ahead of him, but his life ended in his prime,” said the mother, reaching with shaking hands to a photo of Mohammed on her phone. The smile captured in the photo has become a painful memory for her, frozen in time.

Abu Taha’s other three children were also buried under the rubble and it took a long time to find them.

Her second son, Abdul Aziz, was rescued with multiple fractures to his jaw, skull and legs. Her daughter Linan suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma for nearly two months. Her youngest son, Yamen, was trapped under the rubble for about two days and suffered numerous fractures and burns. Since no ambulances were available, they were taken to the hospital in a donkey cart.

Eventually, Abu Taha and her three surviving children were taken to Egypt and later to Iraq for treatment. Her husband, also seriously injured, remained in Gaza.

Since the outbreak of the new round of conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, Israeli military actions have claimed the lives of over 40,000 Palestinians and injured more than 92,000.

Gaza is currently in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis. Millions of people are displaced and there is a critical shortage of essential goods such as food, medicine and clean water. In July, UN experts warned that famine had spread throughout the Gaza Strip.

“Due to the Israeli bombings and the blockade, medical care in the Gaza Strip is extremely limited. There is a serious shortage of anesthetics, medicines and equipment. Many of the injured had to undergo amputations without anesthesia,” said Abu Taha.

“Before October 7 last year, life was happy and decent. Every day I cooked and waited for my children to come home from school and my husband from work. We had hope. But now everything is destroyed, our house, our mosques, our schools,” she lamented.

“Gaza is now like a ‘ghost town’. People are forced to move on, but where can they find safety? Even refugee camps, schools and hospitals have not been spared from Israel’s bombings,” she said, her anger mingling with despair.

“War means destruction, death, pain and separation,” said Abu Taha, wiping away her tears with a handkerchief handed to her by her daughter. “It has taken away my dearest son and destroyed my family. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have disappeared from this planet forever.”

More than ten months have passed since the conflict began, and peace is still not in sight. Abu Taha sees the responsibility lying with the US. “The US supplies Israel with endless weapons, but in the end they kill innocent Palestinians,” she said.

Nevertheless, Abu Taha holds on to the hope that she will one day be able to return to Gaza. “My greatest wish is that this war ends, completely. When that happens, we will return to Gaza, rebuild our homes and start again,” she says. ■