Israel-Gaza: London couple traumatised after fleeing West Bank

Ms Ramadan said she feels she is "living in a nightmare" and feels "guilt for being able to leave"

A couple who got trapped in the West Bank as the Israel-Gaza conflict broke out say they are traumatised and afraid for their relatives who remain there.

Palestinians Imad Alqasim and Zeina Ramadan, who live in London, said it took days to leave with their child.

The husband and wife say they have struggled to eat and sleep since returning to the capital.

Ms Ramadan also said she was "living in a nightmare" and felt "guilt for being able to leave".

Mr Alqasim and Ms Ramadan were visiting extended family in Nablus and then travelled to Ramallah in the central west Bank.

The couple were looking forward to visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem but all this changed when news reached them that Hamas had launched an attack on Israel on 7 October.

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'People terrified'

Mr Alqasim said "people started being a bit terrified" and taxi drivers advised them not to travel because "it was not safe", so they cancelled their trip to Bethlehem and remained in Ramallah hoping things would improve.

Instead the situation became worse.

"I didn't leave the home at all and someone came and brought food to the place we were in because we couldn't actually move."

Mr Alqasim and Ms Ramadan decided to cancel their other trips and "leave as quick as possible" once the border reopened.

However, the couple realised Ms Ramadan could not return to London initially as she is a Palestinian citizen unlike Mr Alqasim, who has British citizenship.

Ms Ramadan said she still thinks about how the family was separated for days in October

He said it was "a hard decision" to leave his wife and child behind, something he later regretted.

"I thought if I was outside I could be a little bit more helpful in trying to get her out," said Imad.

Ms Ramadan said although she grew up in the area and was familiar with it, having her baby daughter with her made her feel more vulnerable.

"No-one knew if the road was safe, [my husband] was asking the driver if that road was safe and he was saying 'we don't know - we don't know if the road is open, we don't know if the road is safe'," she said.

Mr Alqasim managed to cross the border to Amman in Jordan, while Ms Ramadan returned to Nablus, which she said was under siege and officially announced as a closed area by the Israeli army.

When she and their daughter finally made it to Amman two days later they flew back to the UK, arriving in London on 13 October but their ordeal is still continuing as they process being apart from their relatives in the West Bank.

'I still feel guilt'

"It was the hardest thing I've ever been through, Ms Ramadan said, adding: "We weren't eating properly, we weren't sleeping properly."

"Part of my brain was trying to function - what happened, how we were separated for a while as a family, how I made a decision to leave.

"I felt guilty for being able to leave... I still feel this guilt."

"There is a collective grief, but we don't even have time to grieve. It doesn't stop," Ms Ramadan said

She continued: "Seeing people in the streets; of course they're living their normal lives but something shifted in my head.

"It makes you feel unreal, it makes you feel like, 'I'm living in a nightmare, this is not real'.

'We don't have time to grieve'

Even though almost every generation of her family have lived through periods of conflict and the trio are physically safe in London, Zeina said she doesn't "feel safe".

"When you start your day you need some time to try to understand that you're not there and there's nothing you can do about it except to move on with your life."

"There is a collective grief, but we don't even have time to grieve. It doesn't stop," she explained.

"There are some moments where you break down with even minor things. There's a lot of talk about post-traumatic [stress] but there is no post, there is no post... because that has been my whole life," she said through tears.

"I just want things to be over and then we can think about grief," Ms Ramadan said. "I need to be strong for [my daughter]."

Additional reporting by Alice Bhandhukravi.

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• History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflict

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