Thank you for watching my film and listening to my story.
Life is Beautiful ends with my family being together at home in Gaza in the summer of 2021. It was the first time I was able to go back since 2014, and the last time I hugged my mom…I went back for the second time for her funeral at the end of 2022 and was able to stay just until January 2023, which was my last time in Gaza so far. The film premiered in November 2023, having been completed shortly before. I recorded the voice-over during the start of the genocide of my beloved home, and after a year of being lost in this world without my mom.
What happened since is unbearable to grasp. I sometimes manage to update what happened after the film here.
Update
Written in October 2025
I never imagined seeing my family displaced. Over the two years, I lost many friends, family members and my whole city…
My family has been torn apart and displaced since the genocide began in October 2023. Here is our current situation and where my family is now:
The genocide has taken a horrific toll on our family in recent months:
The constant fear for my family's safety is overwhelming. While I work multiple jobs in Norway, the financial burden of supporting my family in Gaza and my siblings in Spain is too heavy to carry alone.
Update
Written in September 2024
I never imagined my family would leave our house in Gaza City and take shelter elsewhere. In October 2023, my family was forced to flee to the middle of the Gaza Strip, to Deir Albalah, where my dad and sister still are today, almost a year later when I’m writing this. My oldest sister and her family were able to evacuate to Canada just now. My youngest sister Rima and brother Ibrahim survived 200 days of genocide and managed to cross the border to Egypt shortly before the aggression on Rafah started, which led to the border being occupied and destroyed. After countless months, Rima and Ibrahim received the opportunity to continue their interrupted studies now in Spain.
The cost of living in Gaza has increased immensely and supporting my family financially and my friends in any way I can has become another heavy burden to carry while I tour Life is Beautiful, work on my next films, bear responsibilities at the Palestine Film Institute as executive director, work part-time at the youth house in Tromsø and pursue my MA at the National Academy of Arts in Oslo.
To also cover my siblings’ living and study expenses in Spain, I need help. I never imagined I would have to ask for that…but I can’t carry it alone. If you can participate and support us, I would be so grateful.
Thank you so much.
Mohamed Jabaly
Life is Beautiful ends with my family being together at home in Gaza in the summer of 2021. It was the first time I was able to go back since 2014, and the last time I hugged my mom…I went back for the second time for her funeral at the end of 2022 and was able to stay just until January 2023, which was my last time in Gaza so far. The film premiered in November 2023, having been completed shortly before. I recorded the voice-over during the start of the genocide of my beloved home, and after a year of being lost in this world without my mom.
What happened since is unbearable to grasp. I sometimes manage to update what happened after the film here.
Update
Written in October 2025
I never imagined seeing my family displaced. Over the two years, I lost many friends, family members and my whole city…
My family has been torn apart and displaced since the genocide began in October 2023. Here is our current situation and where my family is now:
- My 63-year-old father, Hasan, and my sister, Duaa, with her young family, were able to return to our partly destroyed home in Gaza City after having been displaced in Deir Albalah for 1.5 years. But they were recently forced to escape again from Gaza City under the heavy bombardment and, at the moment, managed to find a kind of room to rent in a field of olive trees, lacking the basic needs of life. They face constant danger, a severe lack of medical care, and unimaginable hardship.
- My youngest siblings, Rima and Ibrahim, are safe but are starting over from below zero. They endured nearly six months of genocidal violence before miraculously crossing into Egypt just before the Rafah invasion in early May 2024, which resulted in the occupation and destruction of the border, leading to its indefinite closure. After spending months stranded in Cairo, they were granted student visas and are now rebuilding their lives in northern Spain, where they have resumed their studies after nearly a year of interruption. They are admitted to the University of A Coruña and have just recently passed their B1 level in Spanish. I am so proud of them.
- My eldest sister, Suzan, and her family of four children and her husband managed to evacuate to Egypt in April 2024 as well, where they survived for many months until they were granted visas to Canada through a special humanitarian program for Gazans. They travelled to Ottawa, Canada, at the end of September 2024 and are rebuilding their lives on the other side of the world, so far away from us.
The genocide has taken a horrific toll on our family in recent months:
- On the 9th of August 2025, my beloved Uncle Abdul-Fatah passed away after weeks of suffering, lacking and deprived of food and medical care treatment due to food poisoning. This genocide has stolen everything beautiful from us… taken the kindest and brightest souls. He was my favourite person in our family, the one who held us all together with his warmth and love. I don’t have the words to express this pain…
- On the 2nd of September 2025, my cousin, Suha Aljabali (36 years old), was killed after suffering from her critical injuries following a brutal Israeli bombardment near their tent shelter on the 31st of August 2025, which seriously injured her, her son, and all her family members.
- On the 8th of September 2025, the entire family of my cousin Mohasen Aljabali was killed by an Israeli airstrike. His wife, Iman, and their beautiful children—Mohammed, Hala, Riman, and granddaughter Iman—were all killed in a brutal Israeli airstrike that targeted their area in Gaza City. While they were displaced, they were just seeking safety. We are broken, and our hearts are shattered. My cousin Mohasen is facing a serious injury, and his surviving children are now left with unimaginable pain.
- On the same day, 8th of September 2025, my cousin and my aunt’s Sabah youngest son, Khaled Aljabali, was killed after an Israeli brutal bombing at the Baptist Hospital in the centre of Gaza City, while visiting the family members injured in the previous attack.
The constant fear for my family's safety is overwhelming. While I work multiple jobs in Norway, the financial burden of supporting my family in Gaza and my siblings in Spain is too heavy to carry alone.
- I am asking for help to cover their basic living and study expenses.
- I am calling on the Norwegian government to act and help bring my remaining family to safety.
Update
Written in September 2024
I never imagined my family would leave our house in Gaza City and take shelter elsewhere. In October 2023, my family was forced to flee to the middle of the Gaza Strip, to Deir Albalah, where my dad and sister still are today, almost a year later when I’m writing this. My oldest sister and her family were able to evacuate to Canada just now. My youngest sister Rima and brother Ibrahim survived 200 days of genocide and managed to cross the border to Egypt shortly before the aggression on Rafah started, which led to the border being occupied and destroyed. After countless months, Rima and Ibrahim received the opportunity to continue their interrupted studies now in Spain.
The cost of living in Gaza has increased immensely and supporting my family financially and my friends in any way I can has become another heavy burden to carry while I tour Life is Beautiful, work on my next films, bear responsibilities at the Palestine Film Institute as executive director, work part-time at the youth house in Tromsø and pursue my MA at the National Academy of Arts in Oslo.
To also cover my siblings’ living and study expenses in Spain, I need help. I never imagined I would have to ask for that…but I can’t carry it alone. If you can participate and support us, I would be so grateful.
Thank you so much.
Mohamed Jabaly
