15 Months for 15 Minutes: A Gaza Father's Unbearable Wait to Hold His New Son
When Israel's assault on Gaza started, 42-year-old Ahmed sent his pregnant wife south, not knowing he'd soon be trapped, unable to be there for the first year of his son's life.
“I didn’t get to see his first steps.
I wasn’t there when he mumbled his first words.
I didn’t know what my own son looked like.”
Those are the words of Ahmed, my uncle, who was forced to spend 15 months away from his family – more than a year without seeing, hearing, holding, his newborn son.
When Israeli forces gave his and other Palestinian families in northern Gaza the first order to leave in October 2023, Ahmed felt he had no choice but to send his wife, Rawan – eight months pregnant at the time – and their 2-year-old son, Sanad, to Deir al-Balah, where his wife’s family lived.
“I was supposed to be their protector, their safe place. But when war came, I couldn’t be. That day, I felt like I had failed them….But I could do nothing as I watched them walk away, disappearing into the unknown,” Ahmed, 42, tells me. “They called it an evacuation. But how do you evacuate from your own existence?”
Ahmed stayed behind, believing the war would end soon. He never imagined “soon” would stretch into 15 months of silence, hunger, and survival. He never imagined “soon” would mean missing the first year of his new son’s life.
“I was a father trapped on the wrong side of a battlefield, separated from my family, forced to count the days and months without them,” Ahmed says. “The war cut us off completely. No roads, no communication, no way to know if they were safe.”
‘A Name. Nothing More’
Ahmed’s story is one of thousands. When Israel’s military offensive tore Gaza apart, it didn’t just destroy homes – it shattered families. Parents lost their children in the chaos, husbands and wives were ripped from each other’s arms, siblings left calling out names that no one could answer. For many, their last goodbye was not a goodbye at all – just silence, an empty space where love once lived. Others like Ahmed spent over a year aching for a reunion that felt impossible.
“One day, my wife gave birth. And I didn’t even know,” Ahmed says.