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It was pure coincidence that got Najah Abu Younis and her daughter-in-law, Huda, to leave Gaza only a month before Israel's war broke out on 7 October 2023. Huda, who had long struggled with infertility and complications of multiple miscarriages, was then pregnant with triplets, and the siege-struck health sector of Gaza was to deal with the tricky delivery. She was therefore referred to Jenin to receive the healthcare she needs.

More than 18 months later, the two women are now trapped outside their home city, enduring one displacement after the next, and worry for their fates and that of the three prematurely born children as Israeli forces escalate against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

On the outskirts of Jenin, in a small flat adjacent to Ibn Sina Hospital, the 66-year-old grandmother helps Huda soothe the babies.��

“Our dreams of a homecoming celebration have vanished,” Abu Younis said. “My son spent 13 years trying to have children, and now he’s been robbed of watching them grow.”

According to Ministry of Interior figures, had been residing in the West Bank before the war, many of whom had arrived for health and medical reasons, and others were working in the occupied territories or Israel, and were never allowed back home.

Caught in a and the ongoing Israeli occupation, and as Israel’s military operations destroy homes, businesses, and infrastructure throughout the West Bank, these Gazans have found themselves forced into displacement, with no clear path to return.

“Life in Jenin is very similar to that in Gaza... I hear the drones, I see the tanks, and I wonder if we'll ever be able to go back to Gaza. It’s the same nightmare over and over again"

For families like Abu Younis's, Israel’s war in Gaza has not only destroyed their homes but also left them in a prolonged cycle of displacement in the West Bank.

Even during the 42-day ceasefire in Gaza that began on 19 January and is now under threat of collapse, they faced Israel’s Operation Iron Wall in the West Bank, which has since forced over 40,000 Palestinians out of their homes.

“No matter where we go, the Israeli tanks are always getting closer,” said the grandmother.

Stranded between two crises

After the babies spent their first couple of months in the incubators of the hospital, the family remained stranded in the hospital’s corridors and rooms for six months, unable to leave amidst the violence ravaging both Gaza and the West Bank.

Eventually, they relocated, twice.

“We moved to a small apartment consisting of one room and a bathroom, which the Jenin Governorate provided us. Despite the help of the governorate and the charitable people of Jenin, the burden is heavy and these three children need great care and a lot of money, so their mother decided to look for work to secure their needs of milk, clothes, etc,” explained Abu Younis.

This is not an easy quest. The livelihoods of many families from the West Bank have been harmed by the countless roadblocks and barriers erected by Israel across the West Bank, repeated raids and violence have impacted the livelihoods of many families. Huda struggled to navigate these alien and restrictive settings.

As Israel launched its Iron Wall operation, “the violence and fear were too much for us to bear,” said Abu Younis.

“I worried for the safety of Huda and the little ones, and I was worried that the Israeli army would come into our building, since their vehicles were always stationed around the hospital,” she told ������, adding that everyone living around the Jenin Camp were told to leave, so they did.

‘It’s the same nightmare’

As Operation Iron Wall , with bulldozers and heavy machinery razing homes, displacing thousands, and cutting off electricity and water to residents who have stayed behind, Abu Younis and her family have once again moved, this time to the Blind Association in Jenin, a temporary shelter for those displaced by the ongoing conflict.��

The shelter currently houses 22 families across 13 rooms, with external bathrooms and a communal kitchen.

“In the beginning, we didn’t have enough blankets or food,” explained Yassin Abu Surur, director of the association. “We are only able to survive now because of local donations.”

Though the Blind Association has provided shelter for displaced people in the West Bank before, this is the longest period they’ve had to do so. “We’ve had families here for over a month now,” Abu Surur said.

The association has provided some relief for Abu Younis and her family, yet conditions remain difficult. Abu Younis’s health, too, is deteriorating.

Suffering from bone problems and limited mobility, she relies heavily on the association’s workers to help her care for her grandchildren while their mother is at work in the city.

"I can barely move, and yet I have to care for these children every day," Abu Younis says. "I don’t know how much longer I can keep going like this."

'Did you leave us behind?’

For Maysa Safi, a mother of five, the mental and emotional strain of being separated from three of her children who remained in Gaza, has become unbearable.

The 31-year-old arrived in Jenin two months before the war broke out, for her four-year-old to receive medical treatment as she struggled with a bleeding stomach since birth, among other conditions. Like Abu Younis, she and her family are caught between two realities — one of ongoing war in Gaza, and the other of displacement and uncertainty in the West Bank.

“Life in Jenin is very similar to that in Gaza,” she said. "I hear the drones, I see the tanks, and I wonder if we'll ever be able to go back to Gaza," she said. "It’s the same nightmare over and over again."

Back in Gaza, her husband and the rest of the family — including her three other children — have been displaced multiple times in Gaza due to the war.

Safi’s attempts to return to her family after the ceasefire have failed, as crossing coordination was suspended and travel costs were too high. Pregnant at eight months when she left for Jenin, she is now tending to her ill daughter and a baby boy.

“On one of our video calls, my little girl asked me, ‘Mama, why won’t you come back to live with us in Gaza? Did you leave us behind?’” Safi recalled. “That question was like a knife to my heart. How do you explain to a child that you may never be able to return?’”

Safi, who remained in the building which the Jenin governorate had offered her near the Ibn Sina Hospital, chose to stay – too scared to relocate and unable to fend for her two little children on her own.

Like many other Gazans stranded in the West Bank, they worry of being stopped on the road and identified as from Gaza, and so many avoid going out unless for emergencies.

As Israel’s violent military operation continues in the West Bank, and with a fragile ceasefire in Gaza hanging by a thread, these families remain trapped between two grim scenarios.

"We are stuck here, not knowing when or how this will end," Safi concluded.

This piece is published in collaboration with