On Sunday evening, 24 December 2023, I was at my home in the Maghazi camp in Gaza, scrolling through my phone, reading news about the latest Israeli bombings, when I heard the deafening sound of a bomb being dropped nearby.
I tried to cover my ears, but another explosion immediately followed. It was the most violent I had ever experienced. My room lit up red then turned pitch black. Not because the lights went out, but because of the rubble, dust and smoke that filled the room.
I couldn’t move. I heard debris and rocket shrapnel flying through the windows and falling around me. I heard screams in every direction. I knew that it was either our home or the home next door that was targeted.
Barefoot, I ran through the rubble and shattered glass to get to my family upstairs. I stopped when I saw a human limb on the stairs. I froze in shock. Even though I had seen such images on screens nonstop over the past months, to see such horror with my own eyes was devastating. ….more
