Thursday 12/10/2023

We are now at my aunt's house, the house we evacuated to from the savage aggression on Gaza. At every moment, we hear the screams of women and children in the streets, coming from a distance, as if a beast is feeding on our souls.

 At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Israeli army called our neighbors' family to evacuate their house, but they haven't bombed yet after hours of tension. I am telling you what’s happening, but don't smile now! don’t cheer for thinking that they are calling and abiding to human rights and the law of war. It's a trap, a psychological warfare. They get families out into the streets at night to sow terror in their hearts so that they come to hate this land and leave it forever.

Now, it's 8:00 PM, and we are at the evening prayer together when we hear the screams of children and women in the street. My cousin opened the door quickly, and they entered the house. I finished my prayer and looked to my left. 

There were ten children, their cries were breaking our hearts, but I cried because one of them, a girl, was crying more than the others. When we naively asked her why, she said her shoe fell in the street while she was fleeing from death, and she wanted to go back and get it.  

That's when I cried. How, oh God, how do we tell a child that what's happening is bigger than a lost shoe on the ground, and we can't go out to get it for her? How do we tell her that we can buy a new one, but we can't buy one like it? How do we explain to her the shame and silence of the Arabs? How do we tell her that Israel is raping the world, and Gaza is now  being raped.