It's Ruba from Gaza

Last night was difficult but it was a little better than the two nights before because I actually got some decent sleep. I woke up feeling better and more positive. Maybe I managed to be positive because I don’t get to hear the news in detail. People who have televisions know a lot more than I do. I am not seeing the terrible pictures and videos that are coming out of this war.  Today I was just desperate to have a good normal day and so that’s what I tried to do. It’s funny - the room I’m staying in was the host family’s daughters’ room when they were younger. There are all these posters up of singers and actors from the 1990s. It’s kind of surreal to be surrounded by all these singers and actors when bombs are falling. There’s a picture up of Abdul Halim Hafez who has been my favourite singer since I was four but he passed away in the early 70s. There’s also picture of Leonardo diCaprio from the movie, ‘The Titanic’. I can't help but start thinking about the similarities between ...

Today is the 26th of November and the third day of the truce. It seems like a calm day but the quiet gives our minds the time and space to process things that have happened. Quiet time after the traumatic situations that we have been through means that we’ve had many many ideas flowing through our minds and we’re also discussing them together. I want to explain why I want these diaries out. Firstly my friends outside Gaza ask me so many questions like what is it like, how are you doing, what is happening, what is it like not to have electricity or water? Seemingly simple questions but a short answer cannot explain what we’re experiencing. So I am explaining it here for everyone who has never been through a situation like this.  I’m also writing because I want to preserve these memories as a Palestinian who never wanted to leave their land in Gaza and go abroad at all. Because people and history judge us and will judge us in the future. Our grandparents went through a similar situat...