Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Four

"I am currently at Khan Yunis, and there are several displaced people behind me settling under tents which are hardly viable for a human to survive it, it is a few hours after the ceasefire and Gaza has been attacked in the last hour, killing over 24 people in the last hour," Muna said as she turned the camera of her phone to capture the people moving towards the tents tiredly.

"The condition is worsening as there are people over here that are injured and cannot care for themselves, everyone is tired and the kids are traumatised, the air missiles are currently raiding the air a few meters away, and that is an indication of an attack which is going to happen tonight," she continued, occasionally glancing at her friends who were a few feet away.

"I can only wonder where they expect the people to go, they ordered them to evacuate Gaza to Khan Yunis where they considered quote unquote safe, and now they're going to attack the people here as well," Muna said desperately as she rubbed her face, scratching her hair as she let out an exasperated sigh looking straight into the screen of her phone, skimming though the comments of her followers, expressing their displeasure while some condemned her for supporting Palestine.

"This is very heartbreaking to watch ya'ani, Gaza is no more Gaza, it is already destroyed and now it's Khan Yunis, I mean there's only the West Bank and Gaza Strip left for the Palestinians yet they're yanking it away from us right before our eyes, this has to stop, we welcomed them into the land and they're stealing it from us," Muna sniffled as her eyes stung with tears struggling to fall out of the sockets of her eyes.

"Right now, I am going to show you what these tents looks like on the inside, the land around is mushy and wet since the cold season is already arriving, the people have to sleep on the bare floor and cook using the firewood and there's basically no way to get a proper bath or rest here, it's not even conducive for –" Muna went still for a second as her eyes widened at the explosion that happened some meters away, her phone fell from her hand at the sudden jerk of her body, her eyes were wide open, staring into the place the explosion happened, worried if there were any more coming.

"Muna! April!" Lamees let out a shrill as she ran back over to Muna who was still standing in shock as her heart was thundering against her chest.

"Muna!" Lamees shook her and she turned to look at her with her mouth opened, her eyes widened, almost bulging out of their sockets.

"Muna! An explosion just happened!" Lamees said again as April called them over to find shelter somewhere.

"Muna!" April yelled while Lamees bent to pick up Muna's phone and yanked her hand as they both rushed to take shelter under a destroyed house.

Muna finally seemed to have regained her senses when she saw panic in Lamees's eyes and April brawling her eyes out as she stared at the place the bomb blew off, and Muna was pained to know that the place was awfully close to where they were.

She turned to glance at the people to see where they were hiding, so they would perhaps go with them, considering they were novice and barely knew the way around Khan Yunis; but Muna was flabbergasted to see that the people barely moved from where they were, only the children screams could be heard but the adult stood on their spots, each muttering "Ina lillah wa ina ilayhi rajioon" or "Alhamdulillah".

Muna was shocked, although she'd seen videos of the people muttering words like a proper believer would do, standing firm on their faiths as if they had nothing to fear.

Muna jerked up again as she heard another bomb blow off, this time she let out a shrill scream as she noticed the bomb blew off extremely closer than the other one, she and her friends hurriedly ran away from where they took shelter and flung in opposite angles, each screaming for each other's names.