Aunt died in Gaza, buried with a child killed the night before.

I received the most devastating news on the 6th of December: my beloved aunt, Rawda, had died. I was overcome with grief and felt an immense sense of pain and helplessness, as I was living in the West Bank while my family was in the Gaza Strip.

It turns out, Rawda had been struggling with chronic kidney disease and desperately needed dialysis to stay alive. Her condition was made worse by the Israeli military attacks on Gaza in the weeks before her death. She was in the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but had to walk for hours to get to a checkpoint on her way to a relative's house when the hospital was evacuated.

I was told that the Israeli soldiers refused to let her pass because she had arrived after the cut-off time for the checkpoint. She was forced to go back to the nearest neighbourhood, where she spent the night terrified by the continuous bombing. The following day, she finally reached her relatives, but there was no dialysis available anywhere. Without this, her death was inevitable.

For 10 heart-wrenching days, my family watched her slowly slip away. It was unbearable for them, as they were displaced and trapped around different areas of the south of the Gaza Strip. My aunt had only one daughter at her side when she died, along with strangers to help. She had to share her grave with a young child who had been killed the night before.

My aunt was much loved by the whole family. She was our elder; our voice of wisdom. I have the happiest childhood memories of her house in Shati camp. She introduced me to my first taste of calamari, so I remember her every time I eat fish.

Rawda deserved to die in her own bed, surrounded by her beloved family. She deserved to have a beautiful and proper send-off, just like the funerals she used to organise for others. Above all, she simply should not have died. Not the way she did.

The catastrophic, unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip has been taking its toll on the elderly and chronically ill. Hospitals are overcrowded and struggling to provide basic services while health workers are being killed and ambulances destroyed.

My aunt will always be fondly remembered. I just hope that the war ends soon, without many more innocent lives being lost. I hope that all elderly and sick people receive the medical care they need and that no one has to suffer the same slow death.

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