"Home is everything. Everything—safety, comfort." Shamali Shamali, in The New Yorker - November 11, 2025

As Told To

In Gaza, Home Is Just a Memory

After the ceasefire, many Palestinians who were displaced during the war are still grieving the homes they can’t return to—and which they often had to evacuate in minutes.

 

By Mohammed R. Mhawish 

Illustration by Rama Duwaji

November 11, 2025

The New Yorker 

The United Nations estimates that at least 1.9 million people were displaced during the war. One of them is Shahd Shamali, who is twenty years old, and is currently living at a camp in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip. For several weeks, we communicated via WhatsApp video calls. From my screen, I could see her sitting at a shared desk in a room, where others held their phones at chest height to catch the router’s range. When our calls dropped, as they often did, Shamali and I would switch over to text messages and voice notes...

Shamali Shamali: ".... Home

Home is everything. Everything—safety, comfort. No matter what happened during my day, I always knew I’d come back home.

There are eleven of us, in my family, and most of us lived in the apartment together. My siblings—Rawan, Dina, Rahaf, Hala, Jana, Reem, Ahmed—Mom, Dad. And then the most important member of our family, my cat, Lulu.

A typical day started with everyone gathering for breakfast. Regardless of whether one of us was sleepy or tired, we all had to eat breakfast together. After that, everyone would go off and start their days. Later, when we were back home, my little siblings and I would play music. Dad would be watching the TV. Mom and others would be using their cellphones. Still, we were all together. Being together, as a family, is very important to us.

My favorite place in our home was my room. Whenever my siblings and I felt upset, or when we wanted to escape our problems, we’d go in there and draw. We would hang the drawings on the wall. It was our safe place.... " READ MORE  https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/the-war-in-gaza-has-paused-but-home-is-still-gone

 AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]