Getting some news of home

Today is the 29th of November and the truce is still ongoing so hopefully we’ll enjoy another day. The people staying with us in this building are all continuing to have their morning coffee together and discussions are ongoing about politics and what to expect for the future. And it keeps coming up again and again - all we want is to go back home. Everyone wants to go back home, not just me. One of the things everyone says here is, “I’d rather stay in a tent by myself on top of my (destroyed) home rather than staying in other people’s houses.” I still don’t understand how anyone could have the soul, the capacity or the psyche to take over somebody else’s home. It’s unfathomable to me that anyone would want to do this. 

Yesterday I learnt that a friend of mine and her husband were both killed. She’s a doctor and he’s a very well known consultant here in Gaza. I know her because she’s the mother of one of the young people I used to work with in the past who was studying in the veterinary college in Gaza. I also finally got some news about my home. Because there’s a truce, someone was able to check on the building and find out what’s going on.

We lived on the third floor of our building. I found out that the second floor and the sixth floor were bombed. Since I live there I can tell you that the second floor was occupied by a family who I’ve known for many decades and I can confirm that they have no ties at all with Hamas. In fact they are a peaceful and calm Christian family. They are all civilians. In addition, the sixth floor was bombed and I know for a fact that nobody lives there. The person who used to live here has no tied with Hamas, but anyway he passed away many years ago. He was Yasser Arafat’s brother, Fathi Arafat. His heirs don’t even live in Gaza - they live in Ramallah - and so the apartment is closed and empty. I can tell you this because I live in the building and there’s a guard; I see who goes in and out and nobody goes to that floor. 

Our building was partially destroyed during the 2020 war and now it’s been hit again by 2 bombs. Before, when it was partially destroyed it was classified as an uninhabitable place so it took us 3 years to return back to it. The eye witness who went there recently to try and find out what happened to our building said that the building is still standing and the bombs only hit the second and sixth floor. But if it ends up being classified as uninhabitable we will end up living through another disaster. Because I have been hosted by a family here in Rafah, I was hoping to host at least two families with me once I returned back to Gaza City. I don’t know who they would be but I want to pay back the kindness of the family we are staying with through helping other families that need it. 

I also have confirmed news that my friend who lost her three children is still alive and so is her husband. The dilemma is how is she going to live after she lost her three children all at once, especially after waiting seven years for them to arrive. It’s a traumatic event when you lose one child so imagine losing three children. Imagine the young man who I said had lost his 2 parents, how are all these people who have lost such close family members going to go on with their lives? 

Still in spite of all this, life has to go on. One of the things I’ve observed is that after this week of being in the truce is that everyone just wants to get on with their lives in peace. Everyone around me has been saying that we’ve forgotten everything about the bombing, it’s like it never existed. This is a sign that everyone wants to live their lives in peace and they don’t want to go through that pain again. I also, like them, don’t want to go through that pain again. I don’t want to hear the sounds of bombing and air strikes ever again in my life. Let’s wait and see if there will be any news about extended truce.