Shadow of Resistance

Chapter Fifteen

It is getting more and more dangerous with the tanks and soldiers in every street in Gaza. Going to a market to get some food became a suicidal mission. With sorrow and sadness filling our home, life became unimaginably horrible.

The cute babies are like the only candle in a dark tunnel. Whenever any of us feel overwhelmed and can't bear what is happening outside, we go to them and play with them. Sarah also tries to help a lot. She texts me every day to check on how I'm doing after I lost my relatives. Talking with her lifts a weight off my chest.

1 August, two weeks since the incident. Mum is becoming better and the rest of us are starting to move on. Today is the first birthday for Mariam and Jasmine. We are trying to cheer ourselves up, so dad bought a cake and a candle for their first year.

We are all gathering in the living room singing Happy birthday to them. Suddenly, we hear a terrifying sound of a rocket as if it is coming directly towards us.

This sound was followed by the sound of its explosion in the building next to ours. The explosion moves the air so strongly that it breaks the glass of our window. The glass scatters everywhere and into our bodies. My parents try to cover us but it is too late, the glass splinters are already in our bodies.

I fall to the floor, and Dad collapses on top of me. All I can hear is a loud, high-pitched whistle. I try to stand, but I'm too dizzy. As my vision and hearing return to normal, I feel the unbearable pain of glass in my back. I see my family around me, also writhing in pain and crying out in agony.

I start hearing the crying of the babies, I go to check on them. They got lucky, none of the splinters got to them as the window was behind us and we were like a shield for them. It seems they are just crying from witnessing what happened.

Mum holds them and starts singing "Raweq wa Haddy" until they fall asleep. We leave them with our neighbour and go to the nearest hospital. I enter the entrance of the front door and see doctors running from a patient to another, patients getting treated on the floor. While I'm standing frozen in shock, someone from the back shouts "Move move."

I turn and see a man carrying a young child whose leg is missing. The man rushes into the hospital, the child's agonised screams echoing through the hall in a heartbreaking scene. A doctor quickly takes the child from his arms and hurries into a room, the door closing behind them.

Dad goes to one of the nurses and tells her our situation.

"I am sorry but you will probably have to wait for a couple of hours because as you see there are several urgent cases. I will try to find a doctor to look at you and your family as soon as possible" she says.

"Yeah I understand. Thank you" he replies.

We wait for two hours until a doctor comes and stitches our backs. I didn't think the process would be that painful, but I believe these are the most painful minutes in my life. Finally, we return home after a really hard unforgettable day at the hospital.

While each one of us is heading to his room, dad asks "What do you think about moving to one of the UNRWA schools? I know a lot of people that are now displaced there."

"Why would we do that? Is it safer?" Mom responds.

"I mean it is a school so maybe, they won't bomb a school" He says.

"Would it be their first time?" she replies sarcastically.

"I don't know what should I do..." he says with a broken voice and tears in his eyes "How should I protect you from all of this? Today death was a few metres away and God knows what could happen tomorrow."

Mum runs towards him and hugs him "We all know you are doing what you can, there is nothing more you can do. If any of us is destined to become a martyr, there is nothing we can do to change that." she says.

Each one goes to his room and after they settled that we are going to stay in our home. I think this is the right choice, living in schools with tens of thousands of people is really challenging.

Two days later, Israel pulled most of its ground forces and a week later a 72-hour ceasefire was agreed by both Hamas and Israel. This was followed by temporary ceasefires, interspersed with several bombings from both sides over the next two weeks.

26 August, they finally announced an open ceasefire. The war stopped after killing more than two thousand Gazans and wounding more than ten thousand. The war stopped after more than seven thousand homes were razed and more than 200 factories were destroyed with Al Awda sweets factory being one of them.

It is nearly impossible to walk in a street without seeing at least one destroyed building. Although we are happy that we are finally able to walk in the streets, these are not our streets. It is like walking in a village after a titan passed by. This is not the first time for Gaza to look this way, it was destroyed and built several times through this occupation. We are going to build it again as always.