Mohammed Ghalayini woke up to the sound of rockets being fired. At 6 a.m. on Saturday, October 7, his first thought was how surreal the rockets sounded against the beautiful morning sky over Gaza City.

He quickly realized that this time the situation was different, unlike the previous Israeli attack on the enclave. "When I saw the video of the transfer of Israeli hostages to Gaza and the seizure of Israeli military vehicles, I realized that this is a big deal," he said. His mother Mona, and his sister Sondos were anxiously wondering whether they should move.

As they were considering their options, they heard a loud bang and the sound of glass breaking. A building just 100 meters away was hit. She and her neighbors evacuated their apartment on the 10th floor of a building on the Gaza coast, fearing they would be too exposed to what awaited them.

The noise of the drones grew louder overhead as they filled their travel bags with passports, medicine, and all the books, clothes, toiletries, and chargers they could carry. "It's hard to leave home without knowing if you have a home to go to," he says. Little did he know that this would be the first of her three escapes in just one week.

Manchester-based air quality scientist Ghalyaini, 44, returned to her hometown of Gaza City in September with the intention of staying for three months. He said he was taking a break from his career and wanted to reunite with his father and half-brothers. “It was an opportunity to spend some quality time at home and reconnect with family and friends. Travel to Gaza is difficult due to restrictions in Egypt and Israel, so I have only been to Gaza three times in almost 20 years. , the length of stay is always less than a month.”