6 March 2024
Little Stories
Since the start of the war, I have been writing only what I see, what I feel, what I witness, avoiding writing what I hear. But there are thousands of little stories that can’t be ignored.
A colleague from Khan Younis told me this:
“I left home at the beginning of the invasion of Khan Younis and came to Rafah with my family. We spent two days on the street before we managed to find a tent. Yesterday we went back to Khan Younis. There is no home; my home, my street, all the buildings on my street were destroyed. In fact, they were smashed, and no one can recognise the street or the locations of the houses.”
A friend from Abasan, east of Khan Younis village:
“As soon as we learned that the Israeli army left the village, we went back. My home was not there. People were in the streets collecting bodies, yes, bodies of people who had been dead for days and even weeks. They were left there. Many had been partly eaten by street dogs and cats. A woman recognised her husband from his shirt, there was no face, no skin.”
A man from Gaza told us:
“There were some people between Gaza City and Nuseirat camp, in the middle area, on the sea road waiting for people leaving from Gaza City and the north to go south. They were waiting with water and bread and some food to give. A woman arrived, so skinny, very exhausted. They welcomed her and gave her some food. She grabbed a piece of bread and was eating it with tears, repeating the word, — ‘Bread, bread, three weeks without bread! No one knows what it means to feed on grass and animal food, except the ones who must do it! Bread, bread!’ — And she kept crying.”
At the Alnajjar hospital, a 65-year-old man was arrested for 3 weeks by the Israeli army. No one could figure out what type of torture he had been exposed to. The man was not speaking, he had scars on his wrists, on his feet, on his nose, and his eyes were wide open looking everywhere as if he was looking for someone or at somebody with fear.
According to UNICEF, 17,000 children have been orphaned in Gaza since the 7th October 2023.
A man said:
“My father refused to leave his home in Khan Younis. When we went back home three weeks later, we found our father shot in the head, dead for more than a week. His body smelled.”
A boy said:
“When we left Khuza (a village of Khan Younis), I could not find my cat, she was hiding somewhere, and we had to leave. We went back yesterday, three weeks later and I found my cat dead in the kitchen.”
Calling my brother in Gaza:
“How are you?”
“Very bad.”
“Sorry for the stupid question. How are you doing?”
“Dying with my children, silently.”
“Did you go where the food was air dropped, maybe you could get something?”
“I’d rather see my children living one day more even hungry than to see them shot or stabbed over some food that we might or might not get.”