Khitam Attaallah Elian, from west London, was told more than half of her relatives had been killed in the middle of the night when her sister's home was destroyed.

She said: "Forty-two of my close family - including my parents, my brothers and sisters, their children and grandchildren - all of them when they were peacefully asleep, suddenly gone."

Although she is grieving the loss of many of her family, Mrs Attaallah Elian said she is now focused on bringing her surviving relatives to the UK, because she is a resident here.

Speaking to the BBC from Egypt, Mrs Attaallah Elian added that if there was ever peace in the future, she wanted to say goodbye to her family properly.

"I also want to go to Gaza once the war ends, even for a couple of days, to see where my family is buried and where their graves are; to give them a last hug."

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