Displaced Palestinians make their way towards the site of a humanitarian aid airdrop at the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, on Aug. 17, 2025. (Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP)
Noor al-Yacoubi is a 27-year-old translator and writer. She hasn't left the Gaza Strip since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, and has been sharing reflections on her life with L'Orient Today during the war.When Israel first began threatening to push Gaza residents south earlier in the war, I was tempted to flee. I believed that if I went south, I would be safer — that I could escape the bombs and the hunger. All I wanted was safety for myself, my husband and my daughter. Like so many others, I was clinging to the faint hope that somewhere in this small strip of land there might still be shelter.But as the days passed and I remained in northern Gaza, I came to understand that Israel’s plan was not about safety at all. It was a staged effort to empty Gaza City, to erase the very existence of its people. My small family, like hundreds...
Noor al-Yacoubi is a 27-year-old translator and writer. She hasn't left the Gaza Strip since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, and has been sharing reflections on her life with L'Orient Today during the war.When Israel first began threatening to push Gaza residents south earlier in the war, I was tempted to flee. I believed that if I went south, I would be safer — that I could escape the bombs and the hunger. All I wanted was safety for myself, my husband and my daughter. Like so many others, I was clinging to the faint hope that somewhere in this small strip of land there might still be shelter.But as the days passed and I remained in northern Gaza, I came to understand that Israel’s plan was not about safety at all. It was a staged effort to empty Gaza City, to erase the very existence of its people. My small family, like...
