Thinking about death in Gaza does not stop for a single moment, because Israeli raids often come without warning, which leads to the feeling that death is certain and nothing separates it from you.
This was stated in a report written by Palestinian journalist Raja Abdel Rahim from Jerusalem The American newspaper The New York Times records testimonies of what residents feel Gaza In this war, the violence and cruelty of which is unprecedented.
The newspaper quoted Palestinian writer Nayrouz Qarmout – who lives in the Gaza Strip – as saying that during previous wars with Israel, residents of Gaza used to feel bouts of fear when they heard explosions, but after that their hope for a ceasefire and the continuation of life returned to them, “but this war is different.” “.
“You can’t imagine the feeling, you’re not safe,” Nayrouz said. “All places are targets, so you think about death at any time.”
Fear reached fever pitch
With the intensity of Israeli air strikes in recent days, and the cutting of communications lines in the Strip, this caused a blackout in information that increased panic.
Gaza journalist Hind Khoudari posted on the X platform, “This is the scariest night of my life.”
Many in Gaza fear that if they are not killed in a raid, they may die of hunger or thirst due to the Israeli blockade that has caused severe shortages of water, food, fuel and other basics of life.
70 of her relatives were killed in the raids
Olfat Al-Kurd, a field researcher at the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem in Gaza, said that about 70 of her relatives have been killed in Israeli raids since the start of the war. As each day brings news of the killing of a relative, friend, or neighbor, or sometimes an entire group of them at the same time, we find the climate of fear and death increasing and becoming more intense.
Al-Kurd, speaking from a camp in a city, continues Khan Younis Where her family fled, saying that the war currently being waged on Gaza is, in fact, against civilians, “They do not differentiate between fighters and civilians, so you feel that your turn is coming. We are living our last days, we are just waiting for our turn,” as she put it.
I feel like any missile is coming at me personally
Musab Abu Toha, a poet, essayist, and founder of a library, said: Edward Said In Gaza, when he hears a missile approaching, it is as if it is coming directly for him.
Abu Toha added that those who were killed and had someone to bury them were the lucky ones. “Who knows if anyone will bury us? These feelings reflect the state of fear, defeat and despair caused by the barbaric Israeli air strikes.”
On the first day of the war, Al-Kurd said that she fled her home in the northern part of Gaza City and went to stay with her family in another part for 4 days, but the raids pursued them.
Massacre after massacre
Al-Kurd adds, “They (the Israeli army) say go to a safe place, but then they strike the place they asked us to flee to. This is intentional. There is no mercy and it is massacre after massacre and the world does nothing but watch what is happening.”
The author of the report said that when Gaza residents hear Israeli fighter planes overhead, some of them pronounce the Shahada and give their loved ones around them what could be a farewell kiss, and children have begun writing their names on their hands or arms so that their bodies can be identified when they are killed, so that they are not buried in mass graves with Unidentified bodies.
Other people have posted last wills on social media that include settling any unresolved debts or disputes and asking people for forgiveness to “whitewash their slate” in the event of their death.
The sound of the missile
said William Schomburg, head of the mission International Committee of the Red Cross In Gaza, “when this conflict ends, those invisible wounds, those scars, those traumas that will come and affect young and old alike, will be tragically visible for a very long time.”
Writer Qarmout said she believes the Israeli air strikes are aimed at inflicting pain and taking revenge on Palestinians. “The smell of death hangs in many neighborhoods, with many bodies that cannot be recovered from under the rubble. That same smell.”
She pointed out that some people in war zones believe that a person does not hear the sound of the missile that kills him because he will have been hit and died immediately, but when he hears it, he is still far away from it and has the rest of his life, and the writer adds, “Perhaps, despite all the cruelty, this is mercy,” as she put it. .
