Thursday 8/2/2024

Esam - Day 125 of the Massacre

Life is full of many blessings that humans lean towards. This abundance of blessings holds wisdom for people in choosing what they seek instinctively. What you accept may not suit me and the opposite is true, in all cases and searches. You may try to enforce a form of life on a person, but inevitably they will return to their primary form and original shape. However, when that person decides for themselves to change their core structure, the path is difficult, but not impossible.

The market before the aggression was completely different from during the aggression. Words have changed. Even the sellers include more women now than before, and they sell more of their goods. When the occupation army entered the market in Khan Younis and it became difficult for us to reach it, a part of the market relocated to the periphery of the European Hospital, but the Khan Younis market remains bigger and with more goods. The market in the vicinity of the hospital extends along the street that we cross to the Emergency entrance, and it is the same street that ambulances use. This is where the problem erupts, between people’s need to purchase essential goods and patients’ need to enter the hospital. However, every time an ambulance arrives, the market stops its activity for the matter of minutes needed for the ambulance to pass.    

The price of goods is definitely different than before, becoming more expensive multiple times over. Whereas to begin with, these goods mostly consist of the aid that has entered Gaza, and some of the remaining stock from warehouses.      

There is another entrance that is considered a parking garage for cars, which is roughly 10 meters long or more. Crowding is normal in markets, and due to displacement, the markets are even more crowded, because people spread into any available space. 

There are many young girls in the market who have become sellers, children and women as well. Every person in the market tries to be unique in what they sell. Some of them make food in tents then go to the market to sell, while some of them buy aid supplies to resell. 

There are many phrases that are repeated in the market that we hear while passing throughout the day. The most famous, “your back your back”, which means that the person behind you wants to pass, or a car, or a cart and donkey, for fear that they will crash into your back. Many people scrape their shoes on the ground while walking, making a dragging sound.  

There are many special offers on items made by sellers in order to move their goods, and these offers are available for fifteen minutes to half an hour, whereas offers used to last for days. 

Rafah market is also like this, but larger in size. If a car wants to cross to the end of the road, it must cross in the middle of people. Everyone tries to live their life differently, attempting to adapt, and people continue spinning circles around themselves.