Finding Muna: A Palestinian Novel

Chapter Eight

"Please, we beg you, we have a flight to catch," Lamees pressed on pleadingly, almost getting on her knees to beg the security guard at the crossing point.

He shook his head as he stood stoically, "I cannot let you out."

"We are journalists, we came during the ceasefire and we got caught up and were unable to leave before the end of the ceasefire, why would you let us out?" April asked as she felt her blood starting to boil. Muna just stood there with a pale face, staring right at the security man while her heart dropped at the possibility of him not letting them out of Gaza Strip.

"Why did you visit at this time knowing there's a war going on?"

"A war? It's literally a g –" Muna was quick to nudge April to stop her from saying something that would ruin the little possibility of them getting out of the danger they were in. The man eyed them with a dirty and smug look on his face and chuckled at them.

"I wouldn't like to force you to leave, please leave now," he ordered and Muna felt her knees go weak; she dropped to the ground and stopped herself from falling by placing her palms on the ground. She started to sweat profusely and her head started to turn, then tears started to fall from her eyes as Lamees and April tried to stay strong and further persuade the man.

"We work with Alham news; I'll show you our ID to prove our identities."

"Isn't that the channel that works against Israel?" he shot back at her and she suddenly became tongue tied.

"Well can you blame us? We're certainly against scum bags who support the killing and massacre of innocent civilians and babies!" April said in rage as she charged forward and spat on his face, he just watched her with a straight face and gestured to one of his men to beat her up.

Lamees started to panic as the man came forward and April stood in her spot daringly, glaring daggers at him as he yanked her by her hair, she let out a scream which brought Muna out of her trance. She stood up immediately with her eyes widened, as she and Lamees begged the security man to release their friend.

But of course all their pleas fell on deaf ears, and they had to help April somehow so they went tried to stop the man by themselves but all their efforts were futile, instead they got beat up along with her and after several minutes, they were laid on the ground, badly wounded from the impact.

The reality of their actions just dawned of them as April busted into tears, Lamees got up with all her strength to meet the security guard again while Muna was just sprawled on the floor, peering into the sky as her body was stiff, aching whenever she moved it.

Lamees's pleas were not taken into any considerations, instead of it being fruitful, it proved to be futile, and she had to return back to her friends, limping. The man had threatened to give them another round of beating if they failed to return. Lamees just stood halfway wondering what she would say to them when she returned to them, she sat on the ground in defeat and for the second time since they came on the trip, Lamees cried.

Lamees rarely cried or panicked especially if people around her were panicking, she preferred to be the strong person that everyone could rely on during the time of danger. But she couldn't hold it in anymore; they were really going to die anytime soon.

She was perplexed about the explosions that happened the previous day, the people were told to evacuate Gaza to Khan Yunis which was considered safe; that automatically meant those two areas to be safe.

Khan Yunis was considered safe by the IDF, and explosions happening there was just beyond her. Did they really want to trap the people in Rafah and eliminate everybody?