Waking up to the sound of bombing

I was really surprised to wake up yesterday and realize we are already in December. When we went to sleep on Thursday night, things felt semi-normal. We were talking a lot and we had some good news on that day. There are three children staying in this building whose mother had been in Jerusalem throughout the war on Gaza, and she was able to return back home yesterday. She had gone for medical treatment and was not allowed to return earlier. It was lovely to see how happy her children and husband were to have her back and they got all dressed up to receive her. She already had three sons and she returned with a new little baby. Both mother and baby are in good health. And so it felt like life was going on as semi-normal, except for the fact that we were waiting for news about whether the truce would go on.

The markets here in Rafah are still in a terrible situation, as are all markets in the Gaza Strip. On Thursday the markets had some items but there were many essential things missing, like paper napkins, toilet paper, dates and other important things we need in our daily lives. I managed to get a power bank so now I can keep my phone charged all day. By the time we went to sleep on Thursday we still didn’t have any news about the truce. 

This morning I woke up to the sound of bombing at 6.55am. Last night we already knew this would happen because the Israeli planes were flying over Rafah. Later on in the day there was another huge bombing in the city. There was also an airstrike next to where I live today, as well as many others - we are hearing the sound of bombing over and over again.  It’s absurd that we are starting to feel like hearing these bombs is becoming repetitive. However the impact of them is never repetitive. The impact is huge.

The truce period now feels like it was a bridge - a period of time which allowed us to hope for the possibility of living. But ultimately it was just to bridge the gap between two periods of time in which there is a high possibility of dying. The truce gave us the time to talk to each other and realize that we were all expecting to die.

Location: Rafah

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