Raneem Abu-Izneid is living a quiet life in regional Victoria.
The home she shares with her parents and younger siblings is tucked away on a sleepy, wide street, full of plain homes with neat front yards.
It's a far cry from the vibrant student life she was leading in Abu Dis, a village in the West Bank, surrounded by friends and on her way to her dream career in dentistry.
The 20-year-old is now living in Morwell, a town in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, known for its open cut mines and power stations.
Since we last met, her right eye has been replaced by a prosthetic.
She seems in good spirits but confesses she is at times concealing her true feelings.
"It's not always that I am positive," she said.
"Sometimes dark thoughts really do sink in. But the reason why I keep doing what I'm doing … is because I was on the verge of dying."
Raneem says she was on the fourth floor of her student accommodation when she was hit by shrapnel during an alleged shooting involving Israeli Border Police in the West Bank, in the non-combat zone of Abu Dis in November last year.
She embarked on a complicated journey back to Australia where doctors were unable to save sight in her right eye.
At the time, Israeli border police confirmed firing live rounds at buildings in the West Bank town of Abu Dis on the day she was hit.
She has been left with a permanent disability, but she's also battling mental scars.
"It's stuff that I keep on having flashbacks of. I try to forget most of the time but yeah it's unfortunately still with me," she said.
Reminders of the new life she must navigate come when she least expects it — when she bumps into a door frame or misses the glass as she pours herself a drink.
"Whenever I kind of try to push it back where, 'I'm fine, I'm okay, everything is fine, nothing's really changed, this can be controlled', something has to come up and kind of remind me, 'Uh, not really, we still need to work on this'," she said.
Studies take a backwards step
Raneem has now been accepted to study biomedicine in Melbourne, in the hope it eventually leads her to a career in dentistry, if her ongoing issues with depth perception can be resolved.
She takes the four-hour round trip to university twice a week, a trip she sees as necessary when it comes to getting her life back on track.
She can no longer concentrate on her studies for hours at a time, without fatigue in her remaining eye setting in.
She admits while living in a small town comes with its disadvantages, the sense of isolation she now feels isn't due to the location of her new home.
"It actually doesn't have much to do with whether I'm in a small town or not, whether I am here or let's say in Melbourne itself or around other Muslims or around other Arabs," she said.
"I don't like to mention this much, but even here I feel like I'm isolated from the things I have experienced, the stuff that I have lived through.
"It feels like the tie between me and the eye that I've lost back in Abu Dis is still there and it feels like it tugs at my soul.
"I'm just like, that's where I'm supposed to be."
No redress or accountability, lawyers say
Five months on from the incident, Raneem, an Australian of Palestinian descent, says she's no closer to learning about what events led to her disability or getting any type of accountability.
"I want to know who is responsible for this," she said.
"It doesn't make sense that I'm out here missing an eyeball trying to get my life back in order and that person is just living his life."
Lawyers at the Australian Centre for International Justice are now advocating for a thorough investigation and redress on Raneem's behalf, but said they were frustrated by a delay in the Australian government's response, and failure to address Raneem's concerns.
Rawan Arraf, an executive director at the centre, said whilst the government indicated to her team Israeli authorities were investigating the incident, she held serious concerns about that investigation's legitimacy, especially given there had been no public announcement.
"Even if we were to accept the fact that the Israeli authorities have opened an investigation, it doesn't preclude the Australian government itself from referring the case to be investigated by the AFP or the AFP itself to initiate an investigation," she said.
"They could request information from the Israeli authorities to obtain forms of evidence or other sorts of information which could help their investigative efforts."
She said the Australian government should compensate Raneem in lieu of Israel making an offer.
"These types of ad hoc compensation schemes exist for other victims groups at the discretion of the government, for people affected by terrorism, for example," Ms Arraf said.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said the government "continues to seek updates from Israel into the incident and has made clear that it expects a comprehensive, thorough and transparent investigation to be conducted".
"Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment," the spokesperson said.
Raneem said she felt "betrayed" by the Australian government.
"We've always been quite the proud Australians. In the Middle East I've always been like, 'I am Australian-Palestinian' … same for my family in general," she said.
"It doesn't seem that Australia wants me as an Australian."
Israeli authorities were contacted for comment on Friday but did not respond before publication, a spokesperson saying Jews were currently observing Passover.
Incident gives way to new perspective
Raneem is making plans in case dentistry is no longer an option for her — she is contemplating a career in medicine if things don't work out.
"Now I have this different way of thinking where if I want to be a medical practitioner I'm not doing that for my sake," she said.
She said she had found a new sense of perspective in light of the incident.
"Back before the incident a pimple mattered … but now it's just like, 'who cares, let it be'. Now there is other stuff that might seem a bit more serious but kind of just passes by," she said.
She tries not to dwell on her injuries, in the knowledge that unlike other victims of conflict, she was able to get the medical attention she needed.
"There are worse things out there, this is not worth whining about," she said.
"I should collect myself and get back to doing something better in the hopes of one day help those who are actually in need."
