Gaza – Storie dal terreno – UNDP
Fighting has resumed in Gaza after a temporary humanitarian truce that allowed desperately needed assistance to reach people displaced by the war. Aid convoys delivered food, tents, medical supplies and other necessities after an agreement to halt the fighting to allow aid delivery and a release of hostages.
While it is a small drop compared to the massive need, the pause in fighting allowed many people in Gaza to swallow clean water for the first time in weeks.
And it provided some respite for residents who have endured constant shelling, repeated displacement and sleepless nights.
One of them is Asmaa Marouf. A UN Volunteer, Asmaa was working as a geographic information systems specialist with the UNDP Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People.
When the war began, she was forced to flee her home along with her children.
Asmaa shared her experience, her fears, her hopes and her belief that the current war is different from the previous escalations she has lived through.
Her words underscore the need for a full humanitarian ceasefire.
Since I was 6 years old, I have witnessed several uprisings in Palestine, and to this day, I have lived through seven other wars and escalations. But this war is completely different…
In this war, we were expelled from our homes, and we don’t know when we will return. We are now looking at pictures of our homes and we are longing to return to them…
In this war, several weeks have passed without seeing any of my family members. My mind and heart are with my parents, my married sister and my other married sister. We are in different locations…
In this war, I have a daughter and a son, and I fear for them more than I fear for myself…
In this war, my sister gave birth in the early days of the war, and I was not able to see her or her newly born child. I was not able to be by their side…
In this war, I experienced feelings of fear of losing the people dearest to me, my sister and her daughter who was only two days old.
When I received a call that the building where my sister lives had been bombed, I kept trying to contact her for five minutes, but it felt like five years. Thanks to God, my sister managed to leave the house before it was destroyed…
In this war, I also saw my other sister’s one-month-old twins sleeping surrounded by glass…
In this war, my cousin was killed on the fourth day of the war, and the hardest thing is that he is still under the rubble, and no one can get to him…
In this war, my student for three consecutive years was killed, and my university professor, who taught me for four years and became my colleague for seven more years, was killed with his family…
In this war, many of my relatives lost their homes to bombing and were forced to flee, and they now have no homes…
In this war, every night I go to sleep with hope that this day will be the last day of the war…
In this war, there is no electricity, which means that we do not have a refrigerator or washing machine, and whoever has a solar system is considered to have a treasure…
In this war, we are suffering from a massive shortage of water, and whenever we find someone selling it, we fill our pots and bottles as much as we can…
In this war, the internet service has been completely cut off to the extent that we hear the sound of missiles for hours without knowing where it is coming from, and we try to analyse and speculate…
In this war, the communication network has been cut off from everyone, and we cannot get news of our family and friends, and we fear that one of them will be killed without us knowing and without us being able to even bury him/her…
In this war, each night, a carpet bombing hits our area, and the glare is blinding.
In this war, sometimes I fall asleep early, then wake up after an hour and think that the night is over, but every hour of the night passes as if it were a year…
In this war, every day I say: “Once the war is over, I will…” then I fall silent because I do not know if I will remain alive or not…
In this war, what can I say more! It might be the last I witness, who knows…
Per saperne di più: https://stories.undp.org/gaza-in-this-war-everything-is-different