Under the darkness and the non-stop bombing, I gather with my family
around the radio listening to the
news.
News of bombing and murdering keeps coming to an extent that we can't
keep up with any more. It is Sunday night; artillery shelling from the north
and the east haven't stopped for even a minute.
I decided to escape news and seek a book to read instead. I looked at
the small library in my room, and I picked "The
Ethnic Cleansing of
Palestine".
I started reading while the radio is still on reporting the news of
massacres being committed against more victims, F16s targeting places every now
and then from the very south to the very north of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli
Occupation navy shelling towards people's houses across the beach, Tank fire
and shells being shelled towards people houses across the border line with the
so-called 'Israel'. The sound is too loud that the whole house shakes once a
new bombardment happen. I jump to the window every time a missile falls to
check if its near. If it is not, I go on reading. I try my best to concentrate. I. However,
fail. So, I went back to join the family
who was gathering around the radio, listening to the horrible news.
Reports from Al-Shejaiyya are still flowing intensively. Non-stop.
Reports say that Al-Shejaiyya is under intensive bombardment both from the land
and the sea. "It is under fire. Houses are burning and being totally
destroyed upon their residents. Nakba-like scene can be seen among the traumatized
people who are running to safer shelter while shells are chasing them," a
witness said. I am in utter shock, unable to move, unable to imagine thousands
of innocent people being under fire, under genocide. "The ambulances can't
reach the neighborhood, hundreds are injured. Dozens of bodies are still stuck
under the rubble." the reporter says.
I looked from the window, the sky is full of war-planes, and it
flashes red every now and then. I hear some blasts from a distance, some sound
very near. Death seems hovering closer. I shut the window.
News from Al-Shejaiyya is still coming. Some of the neighborhood's
inhabitants manage to call the radio to ask for urgent help to rescue
them. "They bombed our house. They are bombing houses randomly, tens are
injured, ambulances haven't reached our area," A person living in
Al-Shijaiyya on radio says while out of breath. I heard cries in the background;
the same person screams in horror" Help us, the wall is falling, it is
falling on us." He then hanged up.
No one knows if he survived or he has gone, to immortality.
He hanged up to leave me wondering what happened to him and to his
family. The scene of them all gathering in one room, terrified and helpless,
keeps flashing in my mind like a nightmare. I imagine the father trying his
best to calm his children down, I imagine them looking in horror, smelling
death everywhere, their little bodies sitting next to each other wishing their
life won't end under that wall, wishing to survive.
Morning comes out. It's 5 am now, no one knows yet how many are
injured, how many are murdered in Al-
Shejaeyya. Ambulances are still banned to
go there. I try very hard to sleep.
Electricity came back at 1 pm. I rush to go on the internet, to see
what has become of Al-Shejayyah.
"62 are killed, hundreds are injured." I read. Images start
conquering my head, I think of the 62 people including 26 children who were
killed. The last minutes of their life, their last wish, their battle to
survive under inevitable death, the terror they had to go through. I feel
helpless, powerless, as I sat just writing this article to document another
atrocious massacre, "Al-Shijaiyya Massacre". I just stare at the
number of the dead and burst crying.
