Her mother said no to a phone. Then came the Gaza genocide

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Eman Lulu, an 18-year-old in Gaza City, has become an online chronicler of daily life during Israel’s war in Gaza, after years in which her mother, Beirut Lulu, refused to let her have her own phone. The feature, published July 31, 2026, frames Eman’s phone as both a family object and a public tool: a device charged from solar panels at night, handed back to her mother before sleep, and used by day to record conditions around her.

According to Al Jazeera, Beirut had long opposed giving her daughter a personal phone because of concerns common to many parents, including online harassment, misuse of photos and the effects of social media on teenagers. Eman previously borrowed her mother’s device for school, YouTube, WhatsApp and communication during the COVID period. The family rule was that she would not receive her own phone until she finished school and turned 18.

That changed after the war began. Al Jazeera says Eman used her mother’s old iPhone as her family fled bombardment, dealt with blackouts and documented displacement, destruction and ordinary moments under siege. Her parents later bought her a pink iPhone 16 for her 18th birthday, costing 6,000 shekels, about $1,950.

The report says the family’s centuries-old home in Gaza’s Old City was destroyed after October 7, 2023, and their current apartment in eastern Gaza City has also been repeatedly threatened. As foreign journalists have been barred by Israel from entering Gaza, Al Jazeera notes that social media posts by residents such as Eman have become an important way for outside audiences to see life inside the enclave.