A lucky cat, a tattered football: The things Gazans kept close during two years of war – BBC News

A green bird called Bico, a tattered football, a gold ring, and heart-covered letters from a school friend.
These are just some of the things Palestinians have carried with them after being forced from their homes during two years of war, which have now come to a tentative end after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
In Gaza, people are now returning to what is left of their communities. Many are finding only ruins, with once cherished items that were left behind now buried beneath the rubble.
The BBC has spoken to people about the things – from the sentimental to the seemingly mundane – they have held close throughout the war, and the risks they have taken to not lose them.
My pets
For me, my pets are my soul. Everywhere I go, they come with me. I treat them like I treat my child.
My home was destroyed so I’m currently living at my mum’s apartment with my son. It’s been severely damaged but we’re in a better situation than others. I was displaced several times through the war, including being on the street for days with no shelter until some good guys provided us with a tent. This war has disgraced and humiliated us. It has broken us.
I have tortoises and a bird called Bico – a rose-ringed parakeet. When I speak to him he answers me back. He smiles with me. Luca, the cat, when I start crying, he comes to cry with me. I called him Luca because I got him by luck – I found him on the street, covered in insects.
In the last displacement, when the tanks reached us, I went to another family’s home but the people got annoyed with my pets so I went back to my mum’s apartment even though it was under evacuation orders and there were tanks. I stayed there by myself until the order was lifted.
The cage for the birds is worn out and broken now from moving it from one place to another. It’s not suitable for them to be in, but there is no replacement and even if I could find one it would be very expensive. I’ve also struggled to find food for the animals.
But I won’t let any harm come to them – my birds, my tortoises and my cat. They are my soul, my children, they understand me. I’m happy for them now that the bombing has stopped.
In the last displacement, when the tanks reached us, I went to another family’s home but the people got annoyed with my pets so I went back to my mum’s apartment even though it was under evacuation orders and there were tanks. I stayed there by myself until the order was lifted.
The cage for the birds is worn out and broken now from moving it from one place to another. It’s not suitable for them to be in, but there is no replacement and even if I could find one it would be very expensive. I’ve also struggled to find food for the animals.
But I won’t let any harm come to them – my birds, my tortoises and my cat. They are my soul, my children, they understand me. I’m happy for them now that the bombing has stopped.
Letters and friendship bracelets
I have kept a small box with letters and bracelets from my friends. They are dear to my heart because they are from my friends and some of them have been martyred in the war.
The letters are from when we were leaving elementary school. They say they will stay with me and always remember me.
Whenever I felt sad or anxious in the war, I would read the letters and they would give me optimism and hope. I remember the girl who wrote it and pray for her and miss her.
One of the letters is from a friend who was martyred. She wrote to me that she loves me, that she will continue loving me, that I was her best friend, and when she met me it was the happiest day for her in school, and she wishes for me not to forget her.
One of the letters is from a friend who was martyred. She wrote to me that she loves me, that she will continue loving me, that I was her best friend, and when she met me it was the happiest day for her in school, and she wishes for me not to forget her.
There was this one time when we were evacuating that I lost the box and I kept searching for it in the bags and when I couldn’t find it I felt like I’d lost everything. I kept looking for it until I found it and from then on wherever I went it has always been with me in my hand or in my bag.
This is the only thing that has stayed with me after our house was gone. It is the only memory.
An ID document
It’s humiliating having to move from one place to another without even the money to transport your belongings. We’re not used to this kind of life – living in tents.
The dental centre where I worked has been destroyed, my son can no longer go to school, my daughter’s university is gone.
I still carry my UN family registration card with me which reminds me of my rights as a Palestinian refugee. Since I was a child, I watched my parents take their cards when we went to clinics or to get food.
To me, it’s so important, even though it doesn’t matter anymore – it doesn’t get me food or anything. It’s my identity and my children’s identities. It’s my everything. I love it so much. Every period of my life, this card has been with me. I won’t leave it.
We’re known as a football family – we all love football deeply. Our whole lives revolve around it. Now with the war, it all came to a halt – we no longer watch matches and when we look for places to play, we clear rubble just to make some space for a game.
For two years of war, my football has been with us. Even when we’ve been displaced, we have carried the ball with us and slept beside it.
Football releases all your energy – it takes away the negative feelings.
With the high prices, footballs in Gaza have become scarce so we only have one ball. One time we were displaced and forgot it. We risked our lives to go back and get it.
Somehow, we have managed to keep going with that one ball.
My mobile phone
My phone is the most important thing I have carried with me at all times through the war. I couldn’t be without it. It’s how I’ve stayed connected.
My brother who is outside of Gaza calls me on it, so I always keep it in my hand. It was also how I would check in on my other brother who was in a different part of Gaza to us for much of the war.
I have followed the news through it too. I’m also completing my bachelor’s degree, and I study through my phone.
I have followed the news through it too. I’m also completing my bachelor’s degree, and I study through my phone.
“Losing my phone would feel like death”
I have also used it a lot to film bombings, from the first day of the war until today. I post stories so that people outside can see, and so that our relatives abroad can know what is happening to us and around us.
Without my phone, I couldn’t survive here. No-one would know how to reach us. Losing it would be like losing everything – for us, it would feel like death.
My dead brother’s watch
Hussam Aldin Abu Al Ula, 26
I have carried my brother’s watch and bracelet and sunglasses with me.
He was killed by Israeli forces early in the war, so it’s just me and my mum now. My father died when I was one year old and my brother was two.
They’re the memories I have left of him. They give me the feeling that he’s always with me, even when I’m displaced.
We were one spirit in two bodies. We were always together – inside the house, outside of the house, helping my mum because she is sick. Now everything is on me. Her health has been getting worse since my brother’s death, and I got injured so it is difficult to care for her.
The last time I was displaced, when Israeli forces gave the evacuation orders, I left the building without my brother’s stuff. The situation was really dangerous. There was a lot of gunfire. But I went back to get them.
I keep them in a bag with important documents. I don’t want to wear them because I don’t want to ruin them or lose them, so I usually keep them hidden.
My wedding ring
My family were living in Gaza City at the start of the war when my husband got martyred in a bombing. He was walking past a building that was targeted.
I was displaced to Khan Younis in the south. I came here in an ambulance with my son because he has cancer.
My husband was the family breadwinner. Since he died, sometimes we would get donations, but there was no-one really to support us.
After his death, our small apartment was destroyed.
The one thing that I have always held with me is my wedding ring. Whatever suffering happened to us in the war, I kept it with me because it is a reminder of my husband and the only thing of his I have left, other than my children.
Wherever I go I keep it on and even when we’ve been in financial crisis, I have kept hold of it.
Water bottles
Displacement is nothing but hardship. Moving from one place to another, carrying belongings back and forth, renting carts, loading cars, repeating the same exhausting cycle. Living in a tent is humiliating. In the summer, it’s blazing hot. In the winter, it’s freezing cold.
The most precious things to me are my water bottles. They are the basis of life – without them we are nothing.
I’ve carried the same bottles for two years through multiple displacements. I protected them, never letting my children carry them so they wouldn’t get ruined, but even then, out of four containers, only two have survived.
Without them, we cannot fetch or drink water. Bottled water is rare, so the containers are all we have, for drinking and for cooking.
Accounts edited for length and clarity. Some of the interviews were conducted before the ceasefire. Additional reporting and photography by a BBC freelancer in Gaza and Malak Hassouneh
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