The Gaza twins whose whole lives have been war

GAZA (Reuters) -Palestinian twins Uday and Hamza Abu Odah have known nothing but war since they were born in Gaza, less than a month after the conflict began on October 7, 2023.

Their lives have been defined and encompassed by Israel's devastating military offensive, launched in response to the deadly attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas two years ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has embraced a plan by U.S. President Donald Trump for Gaza and Hamas has partially accepted it, but there is no certainty over when or whether the plan will end the fighting.

MOTHER'S DREAMS OF A BETTER FUTURE

Since they were born on November 2, 2023, the twins have lost their home and lived in tents and on the street.

Their father was killed seeking aid, and two brothers were wounded.

They have suffered constant hunger, frequent bouts of sickness and repeated episodes of terrifying bombardment.

They now live in a crowded beach encampment to a background of almost constant crying by the people around them, the shouting of street vendors, the menacing buzz of warplanes and the crackle of gunfire in the distance.

Their mother Iman wants a different future for them: peace, food, a home and schooling.

The boys are already traumatised and slow to develop. She fears that if Israel's assault goes on, they – and the new generation of Gazans – will be ever more scarred.

"We are afraid this war will never stop, that it has a beginning and no end," she said.

JOY AND SORROW

The family fled their home near front lines at the start of the war and sought shelter in a crowded school. There was little fuel, and when Iman went into labour she had to walk to the hospital. The maternity wing was crammed with the wounded.

Gunfire, funeral processions and wailing from the nearby morgue mingled with the cries of newborn babies, recalled Mohammed Salem, a Reuters photographer working there that day.

"The feeling among the doctors and the patients in the ward was strange, an emotional mix of joy and sorrow," he said.

Iman gave birth soon after arriving, her twins each weighing 3 kg (6.6 lb).

Israel had cut off all supplies into Gaza at the start of the war, and there were shortages of baby formula and other necessities such as diapers. It allowed some aid to start flowing into Gaza again weeks into the war, but aid agencies said only a fraction of what was needed came in.

"I'd go around the maternity ward to the women lying there and I'd say 'Which of you girls has extra milk?'," Iman said, hoping to find breastfeeding women who could donate some milk powder.

With few beds available, she had to walk back to the shelter - nearly a kilometre away - with her babies the same day, she said.

GAZA HAS BEEN DEVASTATED DURING THE WAR

The war, the latest and bloodiest episode in decades of conflict, began when Hamas gunmen burst through defences on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

By the day of the twins' birth on November 2, 2023, more than 9,000 people had already been killed in Gaza, local health authorities said that day.

Israel's military response, with the declared goal of destroying Hamas, has now lasted two years, and killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.

Nearly all residents of Gaza, a narrow, densely populated strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea, have been driven from their homes and cities have been levelled in what critics of Israel call indiscriminate attacks.

Israel says it tries to avoid killing civilians, but that Hamas hides among the civilian population and the military strikes the group wherever it emerges. Hamas denies hiding among civilians.

TWINS' FLIGHT TO SAFETY DURING A BOMBARDMENT

During the twins' first winter, Israeli military operations focused on Nasser Hospital near the school where the family was sheltering.

The area was surrounded, and they fled through a heavy bombardment, ending up at Mawasi, a beach area that was declared a safe zone.

Winter was hard in a tent, with temperatures dropping to a few degrees above freezing at night. There was no sewage system and little clean water nearby, and the children suffered from diarrhoea.

With no diapers available, Iman cut strips of cloth that could be cleaned and reused, and attached them to plastic bags. Even so, the babies developed sores and rashes.

As 2024 progressed, it became harder to find food. The twins' father, Ayman, was killed by Israeli forces while out buying vegetables on July 27 of that year, Iman said.

"We were hungry. There was nothing at all. When he went outside, shrapnel hit his neck and he was martyred immediately. What was his fault? He was going to get food for his children," she said.

POOR HEALTH, SLOW DEVELOPMENT

When a truce was declared in January, Iman and the children returned to the damaged family home. Their respite was short-lived, and Israel imposed a total blockade and resumed military operations in March.

They had to flee again. Without a tent, they lived on the street next to Nasser Hospital for several weeks before they moved back to Mawasi to discover that their home had been destroyed.

Iman was not eating enough to sustain the twins with her own breastmilk and could find no formula. She made tea from herbs and dunked bread in it to feed them. Hungry and frightened, they mumbled in their sleep or woke at night, crying, she said.

Uday and Hamza were expected to start walking by May, when they turned 18 months, but while Uday started taking a few steps, Hamza was still only crawling. A doctor told Iman they had calcium deficiency, which was delaying their development.

In August, the world hunger monitor, the IPC, determined there was famine in Gaza. Israel rejected its findings.

LIFE IN THE CAMP

Now nearly two, the twins still barely walk and can speak only a few words including "mama" and the names of their siblings, Iman said.

Their eldest sister Hala, 20, spends most of the time with them - playing, helping them walk, feeding them and putting them to bed. When Iman bathes them, she uses the same bucket that she washes clothes in, the water brought across the camp in heavy plastic containers.

There is constant noise in the camp. There is also the odour of the sewage pit each family digs next to its tent and the smell of smoke from clay ovens as women bake small loaves of flat bread.

Those loaves, sometimes with a pan of vegetables, rice, pasta or lentils, are all the family has to eat.

The boys love going to the beach with their mother or siblings and sitting in the waves.

"I wish for the twins... I wish for them a happy life during this war. God willing, God will stop the war and our life will become better," she said.

(Reporting by Ramadan Abed in Gaza, Writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by Timothy Heritage)