Israel flattened my home, killed my family. But I lit a candle for Gaza
Al Jazeera
Displaced and humiliated, I held on to the hope that my Gaza City home had survived the bombing. Then the photos came.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip — As we bid farewell to 2023 and welcome 2024, the tragic scenes of ongoing war persist in Gaza.
Who could have anticipated such widespread devastation, loss of life, pain, and tears? Who could have foreseen the displacement, expulsion, intimidation and suffering? Who could have predicted the hunger, thirst, poverty, and drought?
Since the beginning of the war on October 7, all the horrors and nightmares seem to have converged on our lives in the Gaza Strip.
Every day, while reporting from Al-Aqsa Hospital alongside my brother who accompanies me, we’ve struggled to find fitting names for this war amid the countless harrowing stories we encounter.
Yet, no single descriptor seems adequate. An unprecedented war? A shameless war? A war against infants, hospitals and places of worship? Amid the daily horrors, we agree on one term: genocide.
