It was not the first time the Israeli Occupation Forces waged an assault on the Gaza Strip. Over here in the middle of the Gaza Strip, it was outrageous. The sky was almost full of Israeli warplanes of various kinds. They flew as fast as they could, and sometimes hovered very low in order to bomb houses and their occupants. There were many kinds of Israeli warplanes used–helicopters, drones and jet fighters. It was hard to take a step outside my house due to the rockets that fell from the sky. All kinds of institutions got badly damaged or destroyed completely and most were at least partly damaged.
Israeli missiles fell randomly upon Al-Shojaiyah neighborhood, and every single person ran to the streets to seek cover, but there was no cover. Shrapnel spread everywhere; dozens of innocent civilians and animals were killed. Body parts were scattered. The Israeli army bombed over and over again as if it was a game. They came with their tanks and warplanes to murder whole families in cold blood not stopping for a second to realize that this family may have an infant who should be living and enjoying his childhood like Israeli infants and other infants in the world.
On July 19th, my family and I were about ready to have our dinner as the Israeli assault went on. My little sister, Shahid, was standing on a small chair by the window looking at how the beautiful horizon was covered with black thick smoke. A poisonous smell escalated with the smoke of bombed buildings and blew with the wind. My little sister and I couldn’t bear the smell of it, and I started to cough uncontrollably through my mouth and nose. I sprayed some perfume to change the smell of the air we were breathing that moment and it gave us some relief. Shahid went back to looking at the sunset when she saw something small flying towards us from far away.
“Come here, Ahmed, and look at that thing flying right toward me,” she pointed.
“Get inside and close the window, Shahid, before something bad happens,” I replied.
“I hope that flying thing is some super hero like Superman because I just know he can save people whenever they are in danger” she said, staying by the window.
“You must be crazy!” I answered.
Suddenly, she realized what she was seeing. She freaked out and started running all over the house screaming: “A rocket is breaking down the sky!”
My siblings ran to the east of the house to take a shelter, because by then we could hear a scary sound from above. I ran as fast as I could to open the window and confirm what she saw. I thought maybe the sound of the rocket was really the sound of warplanes passing over our house or hovering at low altitudes, but in fact it was a rocket dropping from a helicopter on to a specific target near my house. When I saw it, I left the window open and bent my whole body down toward the floor with my hands over my ears to alleviate the pressure a little bit after the explosion. A few seconds later, there was a massive explosion, and then a second one that shook my house fiercely. Everything was shaking and moving under our feet so I thought at first that my house was the one that had been bombed. However, it was our neighbor, a civilian, less than one block away.
Ambulances came to get some injured and martyrs. My family went back to dinner and started to eat without hesitation even though the dinner was cold. I went bed, but whenever I tried to fall asleep, a dreadful sound of bombing awakened me. I was up until the sun rose.
When the morning came, there was no breakfast and no lunch because we had not been able to get out of the house to go shopping and buy some food. My father decided to take me along with him to risk walking in the street to go to the market. I was hungry, but I couldn’t say so to my father because I knew that he was hungry too, so I kept patient until we reached a supermarket. We relied on canned food for two reasons. First, there was no electricity after the electricity company had been targeted by Israeli artilleries; consequently, it wouldn’t do to keep fresh food inside the fridge. Second, canned food is easier to prepare quickly. I was already used to spending days without electricity meaning that there was no Internet to communicate with the outside world, no news to be heard on TV, no water in the rooftop tanks because the pump needs electricity, and no fresh food to be kept in the fridge. Only my cell phone’s radio kept me up to date with the breaking news, because it was charged on my father’s car battery.
Five days later, someone called my father’s cell phone and his facial expression changed. We were eating lunch so he didn’t say anything about the call.
“What’s wrong, Dad?” “Did something bad happen?” I asked.
He acted as if he didn’t hear me at first, so, I repeated my question with different words to get his attention. “What’s going on, Dad?” “Is there anything I can do to help you?” I asked.
“No my son, there is nothing you can do about it,” he said.
“Would you let me know then so we can find a solution?” I replied.
“I don’t know how to put this,” he started, “but Umm….” My dad was not able to say what happened directly in front of my family and especially not in front of my mom.
Later that day, he let us know in an indirect way that relatives from my mother’s side had been martyred that day by a Zionist air raid. When my mom heard, she fainted as he had feared, and she woke up with pain squeezing her heart. I tried to calm my siblings down and make them feel better by saying that God would grant them entry into paradise, but I couldn’t take control over their hearts because you just can’t control someone’s emotions. They kept crying because they were very close to the family, considering them brothers, friends and very good relatives molded all in one.
I called my uncle to express my condolences on the loss of his sons; he was heartbroken. My family decided to go to my uncle’s house to console him personally on his loss, so they went and stayed there until evening came. The Red Cross organization brought his body out of the rubble and handed him to his family during a ceasefire that lasted for only 12 hours. His family and mine went to the mosque to pray the funeral prayer. At first, I couldn’t get close to his body to say goodbye to him because I was crying.
Finally, I kissed him on his head. We prayed and after that we took his body to bury it in the cemetery. Although I felt that I couldn’t handle it when I saw people holding his body up in the air to put it in that dark hole in the ground, I went with the flow and told myself I should be very proud of him, for he has the status of being a martyr. The day was almost over and what I thought of was despite the fact that Israel burns up and destroys our mosques, homes, schools, hospitals, and universities and murders our relatives, the Palestinian spirit of struggling for what is rightfully ours will always remain; in fact, we grow stronger each day we are treated with disrespect and denied our dignity, humanity and freedom.
The author:
Ahmed AlQattawi (19 years old) was born in Saudi Arabia but lived in Deir el Balah (Gaza) all his life. Ahmed says, “I like my major, English language and literature, because it makes me see the world from all perspectives.” His university, the Islamic University of Gaza, was bombed in the 2014 Israeli aggression as it had been in previous attacks.
Ahmed says, “I have one lovely brother and four lovely sisters. My father teaches science and my mom doesn’t work outside of our house. I spend my spare time reading various kinds of books to acquire as much knowledge as I can. One funny talent I have is that I can make shapes out of paper with one hand tied behind my back. My dream was always to travel outside my town to study and then come back to my country to improve my community, but because of the unjust siege on the Gaza Strip and the shortage of funds, I have no idea when my dream will come true.”
Yeah! For a moment I thought you were gonna say something similar to that, but believe me I think it’s a great idea too because people used to believe in stories narrated by someone who experienced the Israeli aggression for instance; therefore, I think the youths who speak English in Gaza will do their best in doing these stuff you mentioned.
Ahmed – I think social media and Western news sites did change their attitudes during the bombing of Gaza. there was much more criticism of Israel but now you are out of the news again because of ISIS…this is the problem….thank you for sharing your story and I hope you fulfil your dreams.
I appreciate the time you spent in reading my story Bronwen, but let me explain something that might not be clear to you I guess. I’d like to tell you that there is no association between us Palestinians and the ISIS due to the big difference between us and them which is that they claim they are Muslims, but what they are doing on the ground is proving the opposite. All they do is dehumanizing people and oppressing them; therefore, you will not be surprised if I told you that they don’t represent Islam In any way. The manners of Muslims is far away from such violations and disrespect regarding the ultimate rights of every human being who dreams in living a life empty of bloodshed and suffering. Our prophet Mohammed was kind in dealing with people, tolerant with everyone he sees and sometimes he forgives people if they committed a mistake. At the end of the day, it is obvious that our manners don’t allow us to treat people badly because every living thing on the surface of the earth deserve to be respected and appreciated. The point I’m trying to make here is why should we Palestinians be out of the picture Bronwen as long as Israel keep violating every law and controlling its media to not shed the lights on what Israel does on the Ground !?
I appreciate your passing by.
I like your response Ahmed! It is true that too many people who learn through western media can’t distinguish, for example, between ISIS and the PLO or between Iran and Saudia Arabia. But now I read Bronwen’s comment again, maybe he meant something else. Maybe he meant that US news only highlights one story at a time, and since ISIS is news now, the plight of Gaza have moved to the back pages. If that’s what he meant, that’s totally true in my experience. As I recall, it was one of the biggest fears that my friends in Gaza had during they war. They feared that if the violence stopped, the world would stop paying attention and there would be no pressure on Israel to implement the agreement. And sadly, I think that’s exactly what’s happened.
I can barely understand your perception Nora about what Bronwen commented and as far as I’m concerned, if that’s what he really meant, then I’d probably agree on that. I think the plight of Gaza moved on the back pages unfortunately because the ISIS is somehow taking a place on the western newspapers and TV channels which means that people are keeping an eye on these kinds of brutal deeds and not paying attention to what Gaza is actually suffering from and this might lead Israel to exploits this situation to complete its violations of Palestinians rights. But the thing that Infuriated me the most was about some of the western media news presenters who were presenting twisted and manipulated news to people about what was going on down here. For instance, most of the channels especially the western ones victimized Israel and portrayed us as the aggressor and this is not FAIR at all! we all know the fact that goes: “The media plays an important role in our daily basis”, so don’t you think it would be better if the western society formed some committees to work at least alongside some broadcasting news companies aiming at conveying news to people honestly?!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Nora.
Interesting idea, but people IN Gaza (like you!) have much more information and motivation to press the international media to convey news accurately. Therefore, I would suggest that you and other youth in Gaza make a point of commenting on blogs, writing articles, offering yourselves to be interviewed, and producing your own videos and information. You will do a much better job telling the world about your experience than anyone else can. But then, you probably knew I was going to say that, didn’t you. 🙂
Hi Haidi, It’s sweet of you to take the time to feel the pain of others in the middle of all the turmoil and suffering we are going through in the Gaza strip down here. I salute you back for the support you delivered to my community and I really appreciate your solidarity and sympathy with us. I was wondering Haidi if you feel that the world bias against Palestinians has changed at all through this last crisis? and how would you assess the Palestinian media coverage and social networking sites in covering the brutal genocide that happened along the 51 days by the Israeli assault?
Well, first of all, no need to thank me at all dear friend for what I’ve got in heart for Palestine. Its live is just taught with the A B C…
Eternal love story between Algeria and Palestine Ahmed.
Let’s move to the last aweful genocide happened in Gaza by Israel. Unfortunatly, all I know about the Palestinian media is the Kods Ch fb page, and it covered the real incidents in a perfect way… As far as the social networkin is concerned , have seen them , as a whole , fair enough reflectin the daily terrible crimes comitted in every corner of Gaza.
One detail to be raised here, and of course it was noticed by millions of people all over the world , is that some U
Oops didn t finish my comment!
So I was sayin that some US tv chanels nd even British were unfair in coverin the reality tryin their best to hide or fake the truth ….
Expected such thing in fact followin the political reaction or let me rather say : ” zero ” reaction of those two countries over what was happenin…
The same love is reciprocal from Palestine dear friend. I appreciate that. You are correct and this is exactly the way I see it too. But you know what! Even if there were some broadcasting news companies not conveying news honestly about Palestinians whether in the west bank or Gaza, we will do our best in keeping up with the news and then share them on the media to make people believe that something awful is happening in the middle east.
I would like to thank you Nora for sheddin lights on what’s really goin on there in Gaza with pple’s everyday life events nd details… I would like also to salute my friend Ahmed for his courage and kindness. I’m just prayin Allah to bless him and his family and all our Palestinian sisters and brothers , Ameen .
Prayin for a bright future nchAllah! Just keep it up Ahmed!
Salam!
Haidi, I’m glad Ahmed’s sharing of his story touched you. There are millions of stories from Gaza that beg to be told. It’s my honor to use my blog to share some of them. Please help us by spreading the word.
Thanks Haidi. Despite all the information “out there” in alternative and social media, a lot of people still have never heard Palestinians in Gaza talking about their own lives. I think it’s really important and humanizing, so thanks for helping spread the word about Ahmed’s story and the others that are featured on my blog.
Hi Nora!
Welcome dear, it s the least I can do in fact…
But have to say that I’m really sad that lots of Western people in Europe don’ t know anythg, I repeat anyrhg about the real story behind Palestine nd Israel.
Namin Norway here where lots of people think that the Palestinian Israelian confluct is just new…
We have to inform them about the truth. We really need to do it in an organized studied way of course.