Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
· collected 2026-07-31 · by Maram Humaid
At about 11 o'clock each night, inside the small apartment that has, so far, survived the Israeli bombardment that has swept through much of northern Gaza, Eman Lulu gets out of bed.
asserted
Lulu → survive → bed
The living room is unusually dim, lit only by a handful of lights powered by the family's solar panels, installed by her father Hussam, 58, during the first months of the war, before they became almost impossible to find.
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they → light → war
Beside the central battery on the balcony, where the family charges all their devices, Eman unplugs her phone.
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Eman → charge → phone
Charging from a wall socket has become a luxury in Gaza; like thousands of other families, the Lulus now depend on whatever electricity they can generate themselves.
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they → charge → electricity
Still dressed in the white cotton shirt and denim skirt she'd worn all day, Eman, 18, crosses the black-speckled marble tiles of the living room, the worn brown carpet softening the centre of the floor and steps into her mother Beirut's room.
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carpet → dress → mother
She places the phone in her hands, says goodnight and returns to bed.
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She → place → bed
Beirut, 43, lays the phone beside her pillow, switches it to silent, and a few minutes later, the family shuts down the battery for the night.
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family → lay → night
The apartment sinks into near-total darkness.
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apartment → sink → darkness
Messages still arriving, comments gathering beneath Eman's latest video, will all have to wait until morning.
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Messages → arrive → morning
For a few hours before dawn, one of the world's most-watched windows into Gaza goes dark.
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one → watch → Gaza
Seen in isolation, the ritual feels almost universal.
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ritual → see → isolation
A mother takes away her teenager's phone before bed.
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mother → take → bed
Across the world, families negotiate similar rules every night, with varying degrees of success.
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families → negotiate → success
Governments have joined the argument too.
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Governments → join → argument
Australia already bars under-16s from holding accounts on many major social media platforms, while Britain has announced a similar ban and additional restrictions aimed at older teenagers.
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Britain → bar → teenagers
In the United States and Europe, lawmakers continue to debate where childhood should end and the algorithm should begin.
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algorithm → continue → States
For years, Beirut would have found herself instinctively on their side.
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herself → find → side
"A hundred percent right," she says.
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she → say → ?
"It's like I'd advise any mother whose kids are still young — even if she's 18, 16 ... you still need to keep an eye on things.
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you → advise → things
I was against sharing her picture on Facebook, period."
The dangers, as she understood them, lay inside the phone itself.
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she → share → phone
"All these things I don't know about ...
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I → know → things
you hear so many stories of blackmail, someone provoking [a girl] over photos, people talking about her.
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people → hear → her
Even adults get affected ...
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adults → affect → ?
Until recently, her daughter accepted the rule: no personal phone before finishing secondary school, no social media.
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daughter → accept → school
If Eman needed WhatsApp for school, YouTube for homework, or to speak to friends during the COVID pandemic, she borrowed her mother's device.
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she → need → device
Everything passed through Beirut first before it reached Eman.
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it → pass → Eman
The arrangement was not born of blind obedience.
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arrangement → bear → obedience
Eman describes herself as stubborn, and arguments over phones, curfews and going out were hardly uncommon.
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arguments → describe → phones
But, as her parents' only daughter, she also trusted that the limits they set came from a desire to protect her rather than control her.
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they → trust → her
In Gaza, relatively few teenagers aged below 16 own smartphones, and even among wealthier families, whether a child has a phone often depends as much on parental approval as financial means.
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has → age → means
In Eman's class, only a handful of girls had phones of their own.
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handful → have → own
Most borrowed a parent's device, and owning one before finishing school was considered a matter of luck rather than expectation.
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owning → borrow → luck
Eman wanted one all the same.
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Eman → want → one
Her close friend, Hanaa, had her own phone throughout their school years, and Eman remembers pleading with her mother for one too.
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Eman → have → one
The arguments were frequent, but Beirut never relented.
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Beirut → relent → ?
The family rule was simple: no personal phone until she had finished school and turned 18.
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she → finish → 18
At the time, the wait felt impossibly long.
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wait → feel → time
Looking back now, Eman can scarcely imagine what finally receiving that long-awaited phone would come to mean.
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receiving → look → phone
During the genocide, though, the phone became something else entirely.
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phone → become → genocide
She would carry Beirut’s old iPhone 11 Pro Max as her family fled their home under Israeli bombardment, climbed onto rooftops during communications blackouts that lasted for months, and uploaded videos capturing these moments that would eventually reach millions.
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that → carry → millions
…and 160 more, not listed.
