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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Aseel Mousa

‘I cannot carry all of this alone’: the couples kept apart by the war in Gaza

Wijdan Abu Matar poses with seven of her eight children, five girls and two boys of varying ages. The youngest is a girl of about five or six with three girls who appear to be from their mid to late teens.
Wijdan Abu Matar, front, has managed to bring her children together in Cairo, Egypt, but her husband, Hatem, remains in Gaza. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/The Guardian

Wijdan Abu Matar, 43, was forced to leave Gaza in November 2023 with her eight children for medical treatment, while her injured husband, Hatem, remained behind.

Wijdan and her family were living in the Nuseirat refugee camp when the Gaza war began with the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Ten days later, on 17 October that year, an Israeli strike hit the al-Muhandseen tower, near their home, injuring Wijdan and every member of her family.

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