Mohammad Atteya has been separated from his family in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya for two weeks since being evacuated to hospital with a head wound.
Now, he is torn by regret for leaving them in the epicentre of a massive Israeli military assault.
“They speak to me about their nights of horror, they tell me how every night they pray for their safety and they bid one another farewell. Hell is boiling there, I feel it inside my chest. I wish I hadn’t left,” he said.
While he waits in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, only a few kilometres from home but unable to return, 23 members of his extended family are sheltering in one house with barely enough to eat.
“They are eating what is left of some canned food, no fresh vegetables or fruit, no meat or chicken and no clean water,” he said.
In …