Will the Sun Rise Again in Gaza?

As if the sun had set on the sixth of October and had never risen again in Gaza, until today we live in deep darkness.

It's when you leave your inner self and move into the unknown; it's when you are forced to flee from your awareness, from your assets, from yourself, to move as a physical creature and start to find any place or shelter. Literally, you are not aware enough to ask yourself, “What is this? Is this real, or am I watching a terrifying movie? Am I awake?”

After a massive bombing in Gaza City, where I used to live, my family and I left home for the first time to seek safety. I know it was very heavy on my kids' hearts to hear and see all the explosions in our neighborhood. My husband and I were aware that there is no safe place in Gaza.

As the Israeli forces had ordered civilians to do, we evacuated to southern Gaza. We moved, carrying our heavy bodies, to the unknown for the first time in our lives, reassuring our two kids that we were moving to a safer place, although we knew we were lying to them.

Since then, safety has become more than an aspect in our life. And for the first time, we experienced shortages in basic needs: literally no food, no water, no electricity or cooking gas, no fuel for cars, and it became harder to make phone calls.

Everything changed, and we were exhausted by everyday details; the heavy near-daily bombing, especially at night. Many times, we felt it was the time for us to die. We knew about friends, relatives, very respected and well-educated people who were killed in massacres. Entire families were erased from the records. They bombed everything in Gaza: civilians' houses, restaurants, hotels, universities, schools, hospitals, private sectors, shops. They even destroyed historic landmarks and any sign of civilization. They killed mothers in front of their children, killed children, and burned the mothers' hearts. Within all of that and much more, there were no medical supplies. They targeted doctors; hundreds of them were killed