Mohammad Jaber al-Absi arrived in Rafah in November thinking he would be safe.
Soon after Israel launched its retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip on October 7, the 22-year-old al-Absi and his family were forced to flee from their home in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north and seek refuge, along with thousands of others, in the nearby Al-Fakhoura school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which aids Palestinian refugees.
The Al-Fakhoura school soon came under attack. On November 4, an Israeli airstrike on the shelter killed at least 15 people, including two of al-Absi’s relatives, and injured dozens more. Al-Absi decided, along with his family, to move to Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, which had been designated a safe zone by the Israeli military.
The family would stay in Rafah for the next five months, initially at a warehouse in the city. With the ground invasion…