How well do we think we know what happened in Gaza?! Do we really know what happened in Gaza? We, just like the other millions of people, froze before the T.V screens horrified, speechless and shocked with the images during the war Israel started on Gaza Strip which lasted for 20 days. While everyone was waiting impatiently for 2009 to kick off, pinning hopes and deciding on new resolutions, the New Year’s Eve for Gaza was slightly different from what was expected! After being deprived of electricity for so long, Israel decided to warmly grant the Gazans wonderful fireworks called ‘white phosphorus’ which did not only lit up their dark sky but also left many of them dead and also severely burnt! Of course, using banned white phosphorus isn’t the only violation Israel made during this war; and the list is endless for sure!

 

I tried very hard to imagine what kind of miserable circumstances the Gazans were living during the war, but I failed every time, not because my imagination is limited, not at all! My imagination was there to help me whenever I needed it, but because what happened in Gaza was simply ‘unbelievable’! I still can’t imagine life in Gaza! Even when my friend Nasser tells me that his family had to evacuate their own house for 20 days! He lives in Tal Al-Hawa, a neighborhood which was violently bombarded many times and invaded by Israeli tanks over and over again. “The worst feeling was in the first moments when we were collecting our precious things from the house and leaving it, we didn’t know if we will see it again or not but we were trying not to forget the memories we had in it.” Nasser is just like thousands of Gazans who fled their own houses seeking safety; maybe he was luckier than others, as his house was still standing when he came back again with his family. But nearly 90,000 Palestinians have lost their homes due to the war and are struggling to find shelter now. Israeli tanks did not only attack houses and residential buildings it had also completely destroyed the Palestinian Red crescent center building in Tal Al-Hawa, leaving only rubble and dust for civilians as a memorial  to remember their houses.

 

However, luck wasn’t on Nasser’s side in other occasions; his university (Islamic University of Gaza) was attacked by Israeli military as it claims the university was used by Hamas to develop and store weapons, the attack had destroyed the Science and Engineering buildings and damaged several others. Maybe I don’t need to say that the right 2 education is often denied and ignored by Israeli military as this right is violated on daily basis by Israeli soldiers, but deep down myself I know Nasser is just like all other Palestinian students who become more determined and stubborn to graduate and get their degrees, even if it –for one second- seemed unapproachable for him!

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