Horrors Dawwas family endured in Gaza not unique for Palestinians

The Dawwas family evaded bombs, lost family members and fled their home in ravaged Gaza before arriving in Australia. Their story, they said, illustrated the horrors of war but was not unique.

Tahani Dawwas, daughters Mariam, left, and Suzie, and granddaughter Sophie escaped the horrors of war-ravaged Gaza to live in Australia. Picture: Nikki Short

The Dawwas family evaded bombs, lost family members and fled their home in ravaged Gaza before arriving in Australia.

Their story, they said, illustrated the horrors of war but was not unique, reflected across the experiences of other Palestinian families seeking to survive.

Tahani, three of her daughters – Suzie, Mariam and Hala – and granddaughter Sophie arrived in Sydney on February 16, fleeing the strip in late December.

“Until recently we felt survivor’s guilt,” said Mariam, five-year-old Sophie’s mother.

“You question your right to survive – ‘why me and not others’ – because they (civilians stuck in Gaza or killed) are just like us.”

The family are staying in mobile homes at Jamal Rifi’s house.

Dr Rifi, a respected Muslim community leader, said he wanted to help to lift the “heaviness” in his heart.

Mohammed Dawwas – Tahani’s husband, the three daughters’ father – was a Gaza-based journalist and fixer.

Mohammed Dawwas, a Palestinian journalist and fixer, who died in November.

He worked extensively with foreign media, but died in late November after a stroke.

The family said a lack of medicine and critical medical care exacerbated his condition – an ambulance that would have taken him to hospital was unable to reach their area.

Tahani used to work as a maths teacher for the UN Relief and Works Agency, while Mariam is a journalist and fixer, having assumed her father’s work when he retired.

The family fled Gaza City a week after the onset of Israel’s response to Hamas’s attacks on Deir al Balah on October 7.

“We didn’t have anything with us, we were thinking maybe it would just be for a few days and then we would come back,” Tahani said.

In the rush to evacuate, Mariam left her passport, Sophie her favourite stuffed toy.

“She asked ‘why did you forget and leave her’ ... asking if we were going to go back (home),” Mariam said.

The fear of dying, the family said, was constant. A fear of dying under rubble, they said, was worse.

People search for victims in the rubble of a family home in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, after it was recently hit in an Israeli air strike. Picture: AFP

“The most unfortunate are the ones that get bombed, but don’t die ... they die stuck under rubble for days,” Mariam said.

A fourth sister, who lives abroad, applied on their behalf for an Australian temporary visa – to then apply for a bridging visa – after the scheme was announced by the government last year, although only about 350 Palestinians have arrived.

In late November, the Dawwas found out they had been successful but they would have to evacuate Gaza without support.

Mariam and Sophie were the first to make their way across the border into Egypt, the rest of the family soon after.

Mariam said she was enveloped in “survivor’s guilt”.

“But I have a daughter, she wants to play, she wants to go out,” she said.

“I had to put my emotions aside ... it’s OK (for her to play) ...”

Their first week in Australia has been one of respite – setting up bank accounts and registering on MyGov.

Before a recent trip to Sydney, Sophie was hesitant, asking if they would be coming back, having grown accustomed to evacuating from place to place.

“Sophie is smart and has a strong personality ... sometimes she hides her feelings,” Mariam said. “(In Gaza) she would tell me everything is going to be fine ...

“I couldn’t hide my terror, I was only thinking about what could happen to her.

“She would tell me ‘everything’s OK, it’s just a bomb’.”

Dr Jamal Rifi and his wife, Lana, host the Dawwas family.Picture: Nikki Short

Their story, the family said, was but one among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

“Normal life is a precious gift ... you don’t know the value of it until it’s gone,” Mariam said.

“I thought we didn’t have any hope ... But I have a daughter, and then I saw her happy ... (it) brought back life to my heart.

“Australia is a very beautiful place, a very suitable place (for Sophie’s upbringing).”

Dr Rifi said he had a “very heavy heart” since the onset of the war – for all civilians, in Palestine and Israel – and he wanted to help to “lighten the heaviness”.

“(Leaders) need to achieve a lasting peace and state solution where both can live side-by-side in peace and prosperity,” he said.

“Innocent people are dying ... Gaza (is) on the verge of a humanitarian disaster – enough is enough.”