Relief, guilt and survival on a father and son’s journey through the hellscape of Gaza

Non-fiction

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters

Rosita Sweetman

Atef Saif, a Palestinian government minister in Ramallah, is invited to Gaza, his birthplace, to attend a conference for National Heritage Day. His 15-year-old son Yasser is travelling with him.

Early on the morning of the conference, Atef, his brother and brother-in-law decide to go for a swim. As fate would have it, it’s the morning of October 7, the day Hamas attacked southern Israel, to which the Israelis responded by bombarding the town of Jabalia.