The last time Mais al-Gharam saw her seven siblings was two months before the war in Gaza. By then, she had left the Palestinian territory to live in Israel. Soon afterwards, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the family home, killing her parents and younger brother.
Earlier this month, the 23-year-old stood outside Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, waiting for the brothers and sisters she had spent nearly two years trying to bring to safety.
"We never stopped being a family," said Mais, the eldest of eight siblings born to a father from Gaza and a mother who was a Palestinian citizen of Israel. "But every day I wondered whether I'd see them again."
After years of legal efforts, the siblings crossed into Israel, where Mais embraced them before travelling together to Nazareth to reunite with their maternal relatives.
The reunion marked the end of a lengthy campaign in which Mais secured Israeli passports for her Gaza-born siblings, aged between eight and 22, allowing them to relocate to Israel.
Despite the emotional homecoming, the family said the reunion could never undo the loss of their parents and younger brother.
"It's like coming back from the grave," said their grandfather, Faraj al-Gharam. "In Gaza, human life has no value."
The family's story began in 2002 when Murad al-Gharam, a Gaza resident working in Israel on a temporary permit, met and married Amal Karim, a Palestinian citizen of Israel from Nazareth.
The couple initially lived in Israel, where their first child, Mais, was born. However, during the Second Intifada, tighter Israeli restrictions on Palestinian workers left Murad's legal status uncertain, prompting the family to move permanently to Gaza.
They settled in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where Murad worked as a taxi driver and the couple raised seven more children.
Before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the al-Gharams were among hundreds of Palestinian families split between Israel and Gaza.
After the war began, Mais had already returned to Nazareth, where she had married and started a new life. Although the seven younger siblings were eligible to apply for Israeli citizenship through their mother, Murad was not, as Israeli law generally bars Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from obtaining permanent residency.
Faced with the prospect of separating the family, they decided to remain together in Gaza.
As Israel's military campaign intensified, the family was displaced at least seven times before eventually returning to their home in Nuseirat.
On July 10, 2024, an Israeli airstrike struck the house, killing Murad, Amal and their youngest son, Maisara.
The surviving children escaped the rubble and rushed to Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where doctors confirmed the deaths of their parents and brother.
"Suddenly the burden fell on us," said Sabreen.
The siblings survived by sharing household responsibilities, opening a small bakery, relying on charitable assistance and receiving financial support from relatives in Nazareth.
The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment on the strike.
The day the airstrike killed her parents, Mais contacted Israeli rights organisation HaMoked to begin legal procedures to reunite with her siblings.
The process involved obtaining Israeli entry permits, securing legal guardianship for the younger children, completing DNA testing to verify family ties and applying for Israeli citizenship on behalf of the siblings.
According to HaMoked, Israel's Interior Ministry initially rejected the family's request because their mother had died. Following further legal action and DNA verification, the applications were approved.
On July 8, nearly two years after the strike, the seven siblings crossed through Kerem Shalom into Israel.
Travelling from war-ravaged Gaza to Nazareth, they said they were looking forward to rebuilding their lives, returning to school, receiving medical care and spending time with relatives.
For the family, the reunion marked the end of a long separation, even as they continued to mourn those they had lost.