Liverpool couple's anguish after month trapped in Gaza

A couple who were trapped in Gaza for a month amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas did not believe they "were going to leave alive".

Aladdin and Olfat Sagga, who live Kirkdale, Liverpool, travelled to Gaza to visit family in October.

They were in Gaza City when Israel's retaliation began following the 7 October attack by Hamas.

The couple said 44 members of their wider families had since been killed in the conflict.

Speaking to the BBC at their home in Liverpool, the couple said they were now battling with the mental anguish of what they had witnessed.

"I don't feel that I am fine. I need someone to help me because we didn't think for one second that we were going to leave alive out of this war," Mrs Sagga said.

"We were pretty desperate."

Mr Sagga, 61, said when the bombs started falling "everyone didn't know what to do".

"Everyone was just jumping and wanting to take care of their relatives and kids and mothers and sons and families," he said.

The couple were in the region to visit Mr Sagga's 97-year-old mother, who they transported with them to Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza when the bombing started.

"We were sleeping on the floor; my mother was there my sister was there and we woke up covered in glass and sand," Mr Sagga said.

The couple said they travelled seven times to the Rafah crossing into Egypt before they were able to leave.

Since returning to Merseyside, they said that they did not know if they would ever be able to return to Gaza.

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