Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Three

"Three... two..."

"Good afternoon, this is Muna Mahmud reporting life from Gaza Strip."

"Good afternoon, this is Jones Smith from the USA, what reports do you have for us today Miss Mahmud?"

"As you can see behind me is the ruins from the explosion that happened a day ago; luckily Gaza's street is currently at rest due to the four day cease fire brokered by various nations around the world," Muna said maintaining a professional look as April manoeuvred the extra cameras to cover the ruins and remains of the buildings while Lamees focused on the angles of the main camera so as to capture Muna properly.

"Miss Mahmud, what is your take about the temporary ceasefire?"

"Well, it is quite obvious form the view behind me that the children are free to wander about as a result of the temporary ceasefire as you can see behind me, enjoying their free time before the ceasefire comes to an abrupt end again," she paused, pressing her ear piece against her ear.

"My take is to obviously take the corrective steps and approaches to encourage our leaders, nations and governments to demand for a permanent ceasefire, I mean the amount of people that were killed before this ceasefire are a lot and its actually maddening to think no country is actively trying to stop this," she said with a sigh, a frown slowly etching on her forehead as she still maintained her poise.

"It is truly so sad to see civilians dying as a result of the war."

"Just to correct you, they didn't just die! They were killed by the Israeli bombardments, there is a diff –"

"It isn't quite proper to be emotional during live reports miss Mahmud," Jones said smugly with a raised brow while Muna struggled to maintain her composure, Lamees signalled to her behind the camera to maintain her balance.

"It's quite improper to cut off your fellow reporter during live reports Mr. Smith, I never cut off any off your words and I would expect the same treatment from you," she said tight-lipped.

"We might not agree but we shouldn't cut each other off, except if you're afraid of the truth being exposed to the world," Muna said and April let out a small smile as she stood aside, watching the camera as it captured the surroundings.

"The civilians were killed by the bombardments and they are going through a genocide not a war, thousands of Ghazans have been displaced and have to move to Khan Yunis before the end of the ceasefire."

"A few feet away from me are family packing what is left of their belongings as they get prepared to move from Gaza to Khan Yunis, that is without any means of transportation, which is over five hours of travel by foot."

"You cannot conclude the Ghazans don't have a means of transportation miss Mahmud, considering there are over 1.8 million people over there."

"The few people who have personal cars do not even have access to gasoline because everything is now in ruins, and there is rarely anyone who is still rich enough to hire cabs, and those cabs stay close to Rafah which ultimately leaves them with no options than to trek the far distance."

"And amongst the population are the people who aren't capable of walking due to their new found disability the genocide has subjected them to, the parents who have infant children would have to carry them while trekking almost quarter of a day, the elderly, the disabled would be subjected to the mercy of those around them to find a means to take them along or else they'd be left to die here in the streets of Gaza with barely any means of survival," Muna said passionately, the frown etching deeper into her forehead while Jones seemed to be tongue tied, Lamees's face broke out into a smile as she gave Muna a thumbs up behind the camera.