Sitting on the couch in my living room in Perth, my mother-in-law, Ibtisam, holds on to the Aida cloth, cross-stitching a traditional tatreez piece. As she completes a pattern, her hand reaches to her phone to check the headlines on Gaza. The endless stream of news, photos, and videos about the shelling and bombing of neighbourhoods is a constant reminder of our home town being turned into a wasteland. Every now and then, a story, a name or a video captures her attention, and she reads it to me aloud. It is triggering and inescapable, so I turn on the TV, where a Turkish drama and a sense of an extravagant normalcy can distract us both.
Ibtisam landed in Perth last November with two grandchildren and one of her daughters-in-law. Of 22 family members, only these four had been approved for travel through Rafah by Dfat. They left behind Ibtisam’s husband, eight daughters and sons and many of her grandchildren, all of whom had also been granted the same visitor visas issued by the Department of Home Affairs to individuals in Gaza who were immediate family members of Australian residents and citizens.
