KUALA LUMPUR: On Oct 7 last year, Majed Fadel Habib, a student at Universiti Sains Malaysia, was on a video call with his family in Palestine when Israel launched its attack on Gaza.
Overcome with a sense of helplessness, all he could do was urge his family to run.
"It was 6pm in Palestine. I was on a video call with them when the war started. My wife told me there was an attack, that there were lots of rockets. That something was happening.
"I told her to take the children, grab the luggage and go to her family because our house is near the border with Israel.
"Since then, my wife and our children have moved seven times. They now live in a tent in Gaza," said Majed, 44, who is pursuing a PhD in Media Communication.
Majed said his family had moved from one unsafe location to another, never knowing if they will make it through the day.
"Sometimes, my wife asks me, 'Should we stay or should we leave?' I can't answer. If I tell her to leave and something happens, I'll never forgive myself.
"I believe if that is the case, it is Allah's will, but I will suffer from it."
Majed texts his wife every day and video calls her at least once a month. However, looking at pictures of their children takes all his strength.
"She sent me a picture of my son. He wasn't wearing shoes, his T-shirt was dirty and his hands were black from the dirt.
"I regret asking her to send that photo. It's too painful to see them like this."
The war has claimed more than 75 members of his extended family, and his home has been reduced to rubble.
He said desperation has forced his wife to send their children into the streets to collect paper and wood for cooking fires.
He added that the skyrocketing prices of basic necessities, including food, have made survival in Gaza even more difficult.
His wife, a former government teacher, now receives around RM990 every 40 to 50 days, yet she cannot afford essential items.
"A kilogramme of rice in Palestine previously cost around 10 shekels. Now it costs more than 50 or 70 shekels.
"That's many times higher than the previous cost. How can anyone afford that when there's no money, no salary and nothing they can buy? It's a crisis beyond imagination."
Cinta Gaza Malaysia chief executive officer Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri Kamaruzaman said Israel's atrocities extended beyond Oct 7.
"My wife's grandmother left her village during the Nakba in 1948. At the time, Zionist soldiers informed her that she would only leave the house for two hours.
"They locked the house and took the key, intending to leave for just two hours. Those two hours turned into two months, two years and, eventually, almost 80 years," he said.
"And even until she died, my grandmother never returned to her home. Today, I feel immense sadness leaving Gaza because I feel like I'm reliving that same painful history."
He said while Malaysians had seen the images of suffering in Gaza, they could never truly understand the horrors faced by Palestinians.
"Even if we see it every day, even if we try to understand, we will never truly feel even a fraction of what they are experiencing. Their reality is unimaginable.
"We, as Muslims and as human beings, living in peaceful, safe Malaysia, should never stop showing our support.
"We have no right to say we are tired while they continue to defend Palestine on behalf of two billion Muslims and all those who reject oppression and colonialism."
Academic and political analyst Dr Belal Alakhras said Israel had sought to normalise its occupation, downplaying the consequences and impact on Palestinians while avoiding international scrutiny.
"By Oct 7, Gaza was already enduring a severe siege affecting its borders by sea, air and land.
"The West Bank was facing ongoing dispossession, with over 350 settlements and outposts housing more than 700,000 Israeli settlers," he said.
"Efforts to erase the Palestinian, Islamic and Christian presence in Jerusalem and around Al-Aqsa Mosque were escalating."
Belal said after a year, Israel had not succeeded in its stated goals of destroying Hamas, dismantling Palestinian resistance or recovering captives.
Instead, he said, the Israeli military had targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, resulting in the deaths of more than 41,000 Palestinians, including 17,000 children, and causing damage to more than 60 per cent of residential buildings.