BEIT HANOUN, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE - MAY 6, 2025: Following Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, disabled Palestinian woman Alaa Al-Kafarna was forcibly displaced along with her family and took shelter at the Islamic University of Gaza, where she was once a student and dreamed of a better future. Now reduced to rubble, the university has become a shelter for the displaced. Witnessing the destruction of the place in northern Gaza, 25-year-old Alaa, who is deaf, was left horrified by the scene. Alaa’s mother, Umm Muhammad al-Kafarna, interpreted her daughter’s sign language. “It’s ironic how the very place where she once studied is now the place she fled to as a displaced person,” she said. “Everything is destroyed now—the Israeli army destroyed it all. Before the war, those were good days, days of studying. She was focused and successful.” "She graduated with her classmates in the class of 2018. Those were such happy times. When she returned and saw the place like this, it broke her heart—she sat down and cried." said Umm Muhammad expressing her daughters shock and disappointment. "She and her friends are all sad because they were separated. She says she’s sick, mentally and physically, and longs for things to return to how they were. There's no food, no education, no life left in Gaza." Amid continuing Israeli strikes, displaced Palestinians are desperately seeking safe places to set up tents. But for deaf individuals, the relentless violence and constant relocation are especially traumatic. Unable to hear what’s happening around them, they often experience fear and helplessness. The Israeli army has launched a brutal military onslaught on Gaza, killing nearly 52,800 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave. Writing by Ayse Elif Erdis