The Aftermath of the End of the 51 Day War!!
Ali is currently in his 4th level of academia, studying Social Sciences in Al Quds Open University. As the land incursion started as a part of Israeli Offensive OPE on Gaza, Ali left the house with his family and direct relatives who live in the same area as well. The family has sheltered in Al Shifa’a Hospital, East of Gaza city.
Ali says, “They were such horrible times, having to move with thousands of families, walking 4 kilometers on foot! We stayed about two weeks in the hospital, then luckily have been hosted by far relatives in their house. The families of my married brothers moved to UN schools”. Furthermore, the family had been awarded a micro-project of “Sheep Breeding” before, and so they had to leave all sheep behind them as they escaped the tanks’ shelling.
Khoza’, Ali’s father says, “I was so worried that sheep are getting killed, so worried that losing our income will leave us in a devastating situation eventually.”
By 26th of August, as the ceasefire was announced in Gaza, families started to move back to their houses. Ali says and describes, “How shocking it was to see the severe damages inflicted besides having 6 of our sheep lost, as the stable collapsed on them.”
“My two brothers along their wives and kids are still staying inside the schools, as their rooms are fully destroyed, and even the other parts of the house are damaged! We have asbestos ceiling that has been severely destroyed too!” Ali stated.
Ali’s father commented, “But we will stay, only in our house. We have our dignity and peace. Although our house is very close to the borders, we always had the risk of random firing, but this is our place and we will stay in our place, we will never leave it again!”
“Inch’allah the current ceasefire will last. Inch’allah things will get better! We are not optimistic about the rebuilding and the reconstruction parts as so much has been destroyed already, that it will take so many years to slowly recover, but at least we feel more relaxed now as fire has ceased.” Ali’s Father stated.
Ali concluded, “I hope soon we will back to university; we lost our precious time of summer classes and we lost also our summer break. I think we need time to focus on our studies again.”
Even in harsh times of ongoing brutal attacks and wars, Education remains a concern to Gazan youth!
On August 26th, a permanent ceasefire was announced by both parties in Egypt, with the conditions set by the resistance group, Hamas, to have Israel lift the blockade on the 1.8 million Palestinian residents of Gaza from all sides- which includes opening the Rafah crossings between Gaza and Egypt, as well as opening the other two crossings between Gaza and Israel at Kerem Shalom and Erez points, and allowing Gazan fishermen to take their boats offshore up to 6 miles.
Seven weeks of massive destruction and shelling and relentless death have resulted in the loss of 2,100 people- almost quarter of whom are children- and in the displacement of up to 500,000 Palestinians from their homes, as almost 17,000 housing units have been destroyed to the ground or severely damaged.
Al Fakhoora reiterates its commitment to the people of Gaza, advocating its support for the end of the blockade and the right to education for all youth. This is our message and goal that we continue and strive to cultivate in the hearts and brains of Gaza youth and worldwide. Al Fakhoora looks forward to a day when the people of Gaza would see the light of peace and prosperity, where all its residents return to normalcy, and where the blockade is lifted to freely and easily allow for the rebuilding and rehabilitation processes to take place in the next months and years to come!
