Every time I get a call from back home I’m just thinking, ‘please god, no bad news, no more deaths in my family’. I could get bad news from back home at any second, you just never know. I’m really horrified and agitated by the whole situation in Gaza at the moment. Especially recently, as the Israelis are currently targeting areas next to where my sister lives, after she recently evacuated from somewhere else. I know my family has no connections with Hamas but you don’t need to be connected to anything to be a target. My aunt for example was killed because the apartment above her was targeted in the middle of the night and a big bit of concrete fell on her. My cousin was killed when his next door neighbour was hit. There is nowhere to hide. I feel that the Israelis want to create as much pain as possible, creating fear so people will flee their land. It’s like they just want to make the place completely uninhabitable, that’s why they are targeting hospitals just now. It’s like they want the rest of the world to accept ‘let’s move these people’ as it’s not fit to live there anymore. I would like to go back to Gaza to visit family. I love Gaza, it’s such a beautiful place, with beautiful beaches. My family, parents, brothers and sisters are still living there with their children and grandchildren. It’s a huge family. Unfortunately I have already lost a few family members in the war. At the last count, there have been 38 deaths including two nephews, one auntie, one brother-in-law and a lot of cousins. We try to stay in contact as much as possible. The issues are very complicated there. There is no electricity so no charge for phones, and then they need a card to get an internet connection. We do speak about twice a week, but sometimes I can go weeks without speaking to my parents. We lost contact for a long time at the start of the war. Sometimes when the Israeli military is in the area they cancel all the connections. My family has been displaced so many times. I have lost count. First they had to move to Khan Yunis, then Rafah, then back to Khan Yunis, and then on to another area. Constantly moving, with elderly people. My mum is 73 and my dad is 81. Every time they move they have to start over again, as they can’t take everything with them. So they always need to get a new mattress to sleep on, cooking facilities, things we take for granted. So it’s a new start every time they move. I have very happy memories of growing up in Gaza, it was a beautiful life, with beautiful weather for 10 months of the year, not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter. I used to enjoy just walking around our local area, it was beautiful. I always loved all the oranges and olives. At school we had a fresh orange tree and you just helped yourself. Education is very serious in Gaza, it’s very important for people there to get a good education. Even now they are trying as hard as possible to teach online, following the procedures introduced during Covid. But obviously the internet is terrible and charge is terrible as well, so it’s very difficult. I always loved the beach in Gaza, I always loved going to the seaside when I went back. We’d gather everyone together to go to the seaside, having a swim, having coffee and some national dishes, and just having great chat and laughs with family and friends. I was last home in 2022, but it had been 10 years before that because of the blockade of Gaza. Even before the war and the blockade, it was hard to get in, but even harder to get out. I would love to go back now of course. I booked a flight to Egypt at the start of last year for November, thinking the war would be over, but it’s still going now with no sign of an end. I’m really worried about the expansion of the Israeli military operation, they want to evacuate people to the south of Gaza, so my parents will have to move again. This is very worrying for me, I don’t know if they will survive. For the last two weeks they have been unable to sleep due to the non-stop bombardment. And there is no food really, if they do find food it’s 20 times the normal price. Starvation is the latest big worry in Gaza. No food has been getting in. An estimated 14,000 children are under direct threat of malnutrition in the next 48 hours. My parents and wider family are losing weight. My father is diabetic and I’m worried he can’t get his medication. If anybody gets injured or ill they are not going to be treated. There are thousands of people who have lost their lives but are not included in the death figures as they were not killed by a strike, but starvation, a lack of medical treatment to stay alive, or other knock-on effects. Edinburgh is home now, my children were born here and we are very settled here, my son is 25 and my daughter is 20. I work as a small tour operator and I take people around Scotland, showing off Scotland to the world. I love living here. I really love talking about Scotland. Get all of the latest breaking news from Edinburgh and the Lothians with our free breaking newsletter. I really like rugby and try to get along to Murrayfield to watch Scotland play, or at least watch the matches on the television. My mother came here to visit me and she liked Scotland, but she wouldn’t want to live here, Gaza is her home. And my father spent his whole life building and making his home. Although, our family home is pretty much destroyed now. Some of the walls and columns are totally gone. There are no windows or doors but they are staying there for now with my brother, after being evacuated and coming back. But my sister and her family are staying in tents just now. I just pray that no more members of my family are killed in this horrible war and that peace will come soon for the people of my homeland.