The impossible choice for my family in Gaza: stay and be killed together, or move and risk dying apart | Ghada Ageel

Will I take my books and my schoolbag?' my niece asked as her parents packed the essentials: blankets, documents, food. There was no way to explain

In my home town of Khan Younis, a refugee camp to the south of the Gaza Strip, my family home has finally been evacuated. The building suffered substantial damage when 36 of my relatives were killed in a bombing on 26 October. But they had clung on to the small piece of safety they felt they had there and continued to live in the home anyway. Then, on Christmas Day, the terrifying news fell from the sky written on leaflets - a directive to evacuate.

In the Christian story of Jesus, his mother and father travelled the land looking for somewhere safe to stay. Everywhere they heard: There is no room at the inn." One of the places they visited on this journey was Gaza. For Palestinians, more than 2,000 years later, the question remains: Where can we go?"