Gaza: A frightful night

29 December 2008

Oxfam's Mohammed Ali continues to report from his home in Gaza City on the third day of the Israeli military offensive. According to the news and medical sources 345 Gazans have been killed, 1600 injured, and 220 are in a critical condition.

It is the third night of the Israeli offensive operation, which is killing and injuring civilian Hamas Police and other Gazan civilians - 62 women and children are reported to have been killed so far.

As was the case last night, my two young children, my wife, and my sister-in-law and I all slept in our living room, which lies in the centre of our flat. The night was not too different to any of the previous nights with Israeli jets hitting dozens of buildings - an average of one air strike every five minutes in Gaza city alone.

My wife, sister in-law and I watched the news on TV, at 1am breaking news announced that the Israeli military had hit a mosque in Jabbalia refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip. We were shocked to hear that the shelling caused a civilian's house to collapse, killing five sisters and injuring all eleven family members. We cried together in the knowledge that no one, not even us, was safe from the Israeli air strikes, every one of us could be hit.

Hitting the Islamic University of Gaza
We barely slept... whenever the children fell sleep, a huge explosion shook my home. 500 metres from us the Israeli air strikes hit the Islamic University buildings as well as Gaza harbour. The Islamic University of Gaza is the university that I graduated from and cherish. When I heard that the Israeli F16 missiles had destroyed it, I felt as though my good memories had also been obliterated.

The sound of the strike was almost deafening and my two young children cried once more. Immediately, I called one of my sisters who lives close to the university. She was crying along with her five children and told me, "We are so scared ...I don't know where to go ... what to do...the explosion shook our entire building... we were all sleeping."

I listened to her but could not find the words to reassure her, how could I? It is obvious that no one is safe.

Nightmares
After a long and exhausting night, I finally tried to get some sleep, it was around 4am. All my family were sleeping and I could see the tears in their resting eyes. I must have just fallen asleep when I awoke from a horrific nightmare where I found myself between shelling and killing and could not figure out what to do with myself.

At 6:30am my eldest son of 15 months woke up crying, after that I did not sleep. At 9am we went to have our family breakfast, I was still in a state of shock, the long night of air strikes and nightmares haunting me. I kept my dream to myself not wanting to worry my family further.

All of them had a terrible nights sleep. My brother and his wife spent the night close to the wall in their room, thinking it would provide them with some cover in the event of an attack on their home. At 3am all of a sudden my father awoke my mother, telling her that there was shelling and the windows of the room were shattered. Fortunately, it was just a nightmare.

Power blackout
At 6:00am the power shutdown completely, after almost twelve hours, it returned. We spent the day listening to the radio, and trembling at every sound of the strikes. One of them hit a fire station in Khanyounis refugee camp, just 70 - 80 metres away from my grandma's home. As soon as we heard the news my mother cried. I immediately called my uncles to find out if everyone was OK. The explosion severely shook their home shattering most of the windows but all of them were OK.

Happy New Year Gaza
While sitting with my family listening to the radio and the news, my mind wandered and I thought about the New Year. Only two days before the Israeli military operation, my wife asked me, where do you plan to go for New Year's eve, and I told her "maybe we can take the children to go for dinner with our friends." Now, in the third day of the Israeli offensive attack against Gaza, I believe that my answer should be revised. We'll probably watch the rest of the world happily celebrating New Year's Eve, while all of us in Gaza mourn the causalities caused by the Israeli air strikes. The world will watch us all scared and dying and the day after we'll watch them celebrating their New Year.