Extract from ABC News
Mahmoud Idrees is on the brink. He is trying to hold it all together for his family.
But after weeks of dodging Israeli air strikes and bombs falling from the sky, all he can do now is wait.
He moved his family seven times since they fled their home in north Gaza at the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war.
"Every day passes on, as if it's one year," Mahmoud told the ABC.
"We are living here with everywhere bombings, everywhere killings, everywhere victims."
A fortnight ago, Mahmoud, his wife, their three children, and his 88-year-old mother were granted visitor visas to come to Australia.
The Australian government has approved 860 of the temporary visas for Palestinian people fleeing the conflict.
Getting a visa is one thing, but getting to Australia is another challenge entirely.
"The big problem is how to get out from Gaza," he said.
"Until now [the Israeli and Egyptian authorities] didn't put our name on the Gaza checking point, the Rafah crossing."
The ABC understands when visas are approved, the Israeli and Egyptian authorities then inform the person when it is time to exit Gaza into Egypt by posting a list of approved names.
Now in the south of Gaza, Mahmoud said he had been checking regularly whether his family's names have been put on "the list", and he is growing impatient.
With the ceasefire set to expire on Friday (local time), Mahmoud is contemplating other, more dangerous ways to leave Gaza.
"I will not stay in Gaza. I will go from Gaza. And I will leave Gaza forever," he said.
"When you are looking at the eyes of your children and your mother, the fear in their eyes, you can't do anything for them. Just looking at them, and praying for God that you don't be the next one who the bomb will be on your house."
He said he also worries for his wheelchair-bound mother Jamila who has diabetes and severe rheumatoid arthritis.
"She has four or five types of medicine [but] every pharmacy [only] has one kind of her medicine," he said.
He said he is desperately trying to fill his mother's prescriptions — her supply is almost finished.
'Unimaginable' conditions
As Mahmoud and his family wait anxiously in southern Gaza to cross into Egypt, other families who have been granted visas for Australia are struggling to make it there from Gaza's north.
When Townsville man Adam Alajara speaks to his brother Alaa Aljara who lives in north Gaza, he is haunted by what he hears.
What Alaa has witnessed there is "unimaginable" and "impossible to deal with", Adam told the ABC.
"Life in north Gaza for people is becoming too hard to bear," he added.
Adam applied for Alaa, his wife, and their seven children to come to Australia on tourist visas, but finding a safe way to the Rafah Crossing is the hard part.
The first obstacle is waiting for their names to be called out from "the list".
Adam understands that when Alaa's name makes it onto "the list" Alaa will be contacted directly.
But, he has also heard some people say names appear on a physical list at the border.
The uncertainty about if they will hear, how they will hear, and when is making them all feel anxious.
The next obstacle is the 41-kilometre journey from north Gaza to Rafah.
Alaa told the ABC there are no taxis running and no other transport from north Gaza, so one of the only options is a seven-hour walk to Khan Younis, then to get a taxi the rest way.
"There is nothing left here," Alaa told the ABC.
"It's hard, to be honest, to get out of north Gaza. It's going to be really hard, but it is possible, there just needs to be arrangements made to get out safely."
Alaa fears what he might have to do to guarantee safe passage.
"Sometimes the [Israeli armies] accept bribes," he said.
Before the war, Alaa said he and his family lived with a sense of security. But it all changed when a bomb landed right next to their home leaving behind nothing but rubble.
As they wait to travel south they are staying in an empty supermarket, with dozens of others taking shelter.
There is no clean drinking water and very little food.
"[My children] wake up in the middle of the night, they have night terrors," Alaa said.
"They've been 45 days in the middle of the war. Nobody could handle this. I am an older man and I can't handle it mentally, how could they?
"I wish to get out of Gaza, because we don't have any hope or future here — there is no future in Gaza."
Families in Australia 'dream' of a reunion
Before the ceasefire, Mahmoud's family in Australia had to calm him down. But the pressure of being the patriarch of his family is weighing on him.
The war has changed how Mahmoud feels about life in Gaza. He's now looking forward to the possibility of life in Australia.
"It will be most happiest day in my life, if I can reach this Rafah checking point and cross to Egypt … I hope that will be easier very soon."
In Sydney, Mahmoud's sister Mona Idris and her husband Majed Odeh are glued to the television screen waiting for the latest updates on the war.
Mona is in a constant stream of tears hoping Mahmoud, his family, and her elderly mother can escape Gaza.
"It is very stressful and upsetting," Mr Odeh told the ABC.
"Seeing all the scenes on the TV with all these bombings … we just imagined that this could be a matter of time that our family will be subjected to the same."
Since his family received their visas to Australia, Mr Odeh has been calling the Department of Foreign Affairs for updates.
But he found out that the timing of his family's departure is now out of the hands of the Australian government.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) said it is supporting more than 60 people who have had their names provided to authorities to leave Gaza.
However, the department said the Australian government has limited ability to assist people fleeing the conflict.
It says despite someone being granted a visa, it does not mean they are able to leave Gaza.
"The Australian government has so far supported a total of 131 individuals, including Australian citizens, permanent residents and family members, to depart Gaza," a DFAT spokesperson said.
Mr Odeh said he was afraid of what may happen after the ceasefire.
"With every bombardment, they just pray to God that it's not going to be for them," he said.
He added that he would not feel relief until he was driving to pick his family up from the airport in Sydney.
"It will be just like a dream coming true [but] first step is they go out from Gaza."
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