My experience as a refugee began when Israel started bombing the area around us like crazy.
Every minute of the day we hear the bombs falling closer and closer, until the moment of truth accrued, we knew that we are running out of time to evacuate the area we live in, we understood that because we live in an eight story building, we were considered a target for the Israeli army.
The day of the hard decision.
Leaving our home meant leaving everything behind us, our belongings, our years of hard work we put into our home and the lovely memories we made there, but it was a decision that had to be made in order to protect our lives, we knew that the IDF does not have a problem targeting civilian structures and innocent bystanders, so we had to act fast. We packed what we can carry on our tired shoulders by noon, and as the bombings calmed down by 3 pm, we found our chance to move our plan was to go to my uncle’s house about half a kilometer away and stay the night there and in the morning we would all go to Rafah as it served for a temporary shelter, not that it wasn’t targeted, because it was, but it was targeted less that other areas in Gaza.
As we are leaving our area, the sight of the empty area that was always filled with children playing felt very lonely, my moment of thought was interrupted by the sounds of the artillery shells landing near us, that was our signal to continue moving, as we reached my uncles house, we learned that two towers where hit and reduced to rubble, plus the area was targeted by white phosphorus. We were very lucky to make out in time.
The scent of gunpowder and burning flesh
As we reached my uncles house, we began feeling our exhaustion settling in, and by night we all fell asleep even though the sound of bombed never calmed down. Around 2 am I heard a sound of a very big explosion, I shrugged it off thinking things are as always, only to hear my father calling for me to stand up as he goes outside, and as I realized what is happening I jumped from the floor where I was sleeping and ran outside.
Outside I was greeted to the scene of home around ten meters away burning, the home owners thrown by the strong explosion onto the street, a kid with a brokin leg, another dead on the ground, a body burned near a flaming car, the home which was only partly destroyed gave way to more horrible sights, a pile of dead bodies some burning and some not, but one thing was clear, they were all dead, there was nothing we can do at this point, and the crime they have committed for the whole family to be killed like this, the man worked as a reporter and made constant reports about the war crimes that are being committed by the IDF, so he had to be silenced.
A typical morning
The sound of bombs continued all night, in the morning we made a deal with a van to take us to Rafah in search for safety, artillery shells kept falling around us as we moved around, but we managed to secure some supplies to last us a few days just in case the unexpected happens. As the van arrived we loaded everything while under fire, the sight of the refugee tents was enough to move any human being with a heart, if only people looked at Gaza.
As we reached Rafah we spent 2 days sleeping in the streets, until a total stranger took us in, as expected from Gaza citizens, we were welcomed with open arms by a complete stranger who we had no ties with what so ever, and yet he allowed us to stay at his home, and paid for some of our needs even though we told him that we can afford it, being away from home sure was hard but this man really made it a lot less worse. We still struggled tough, we had to stand in line for hours to secure food and clothes, there was also the fear of infections spreading due to the high concentration of people in Rafah, the health system was already suffering before the war, I am surprised there is a health system during it, so we had to be extra careful with ourselves.
I only wrote a short part of my experience during my time as a refugee because if I wanted to write all what happened I would need a lot of pages and months of constant writing, what I have witnessed is something that I hope no person would see or happen too again, but it will, only when humanity band together and say enough is enough will we see the end of it all, I still want to believe that there is good in us all, and it only takes one person to break the silence and speak up, refusing committing atrocities against each other, and respecting one another.
Only then will we be able to strive as a whole and break our limits.
