From Telegram messages sent in January by Muhammad Sultan, who lives in Gaza, to his sister Enas Sultan, who lives in Norway. Translated from the Arabic by Dalia Taha.

Enas, this is Muhammad. All of us are fine. Please answer quickly. Only Telegram doesn’t need to be updated, which allows me to text you. The internet is totally dead.

We have lived through very hard days. We have sheltered in every place you can imagine. Thank God we are alive.

But we have suffered a tragedy. Aya got sick for two weeks and ended up giving birth. No hospitals, no incubators. She was in her seventh month.

We took her babies to Kamal Adwan Hospital five days ago. When I went to get them, they were dead. Twin girls.

The poor thing, their mother still thinks they are alive in the incubator. We don’t know how to tell her. But thank God we are all okay. We want things to calm down and for this situation to end.

We all miss you a lot.

I’m now in Jabalia. I went to get my salary, but my name is not on the list. We are broke, Enas.

Enas, pick up.

Ayloul is growing into a big teddy bear. No one can carry her. Meanwhile, each one of us has lost ten kilos. Our mother is very thin. Dima has lost so much weight. Our house is heavily damaged.

Sohaib is devastated because of his twin daughters. It is very depressing. I’m heartbroken for him.

Two days ago, we pulled our relatives Muhammad and Ibrahim out from under the rubble and buried them in Al-Shifa Hospital. Two days later, we buried the twins. They are all in the same grave.

Many terrible things have happened. Hala’s sister Tohany was martyred along with all her children. Hala is devastated. They executed Kamel Nofal. Many people from the Ghabun family were shot or bombed. There is bombing everywhere.

I no longer search for who is alive and who is dead. We just check the news in hope, go to sleep, wake up, and get the essentials we need to survive.

We live in fear.

I will disconnect now. I wish I were able to speak to you.

I miss you.

Salaam.