Water from Puddles, Trump and Death
Our author is back in his home in the north of the Gaza Strip. There is hardly any water, no electricity and everyone is asking themselves: What will happen next?
We have returned to our homes after a year and a half of displacement. But we all brought with us countless worries and scenes that we cannot forget, scenes that will probably stay with us for a lifetime. Every house has lost at least one martyr and there is not a single household that does not have war wounded. The families have returned, but they have left many of their children underground.
How life in northern Gaza will continue after a year and a half of relentless killing is unclear. The sewage systems are completely destroyed and there is no electricity to help people live as they once did. Obtaining water for daily use is difficult, as is obtaining drinking water.
People travel long distances to survive in the rubble of their homes and to collect water, some with buckets in their hands, others pulling small carts. In the Shuja'iyya neighborhood where I live, there is only one water distribution point. Many are forced to drink untreated water collected from rain puddles. My family and I often drink this water because we have no other choice.
My brother Ahmed pulls a cart for half an hour every day to fetch water for us. Ahmed is a young man who knows only war. He is trying to study for his final school exams in July while taking care of the household in an environment that is almost uninhabitable. "I don't know what to do," he says. "Nothing here is OK. Even getting water is a struggle."
Tents on the rubble of their own destroyed house
The roads are destroyed and most houses are uninhabitable. Those whose houses were destroyed have pitched their tents on the rubble and are trying to build a new life for themselves. They have left their tents in the south to pitch them again here - this time on their own land, which offers them the small consolation of being home again.
The second phase of the agreement has not yet been implemented and people are very afraid. But this time they are determined not to leave their homes. People here say: "What else can the occupation do? They have destroyed everything and killed our families."
Everyone hears about Trump's plan to expel the people of Gaza. We don't believe in this horror scenario and we are not afraid of it. Most people here say: "Is there any greater pain than death, after everything we have experienced?"
Some are completely exhausted, their spirits shattered. Their only thought is survival. They say they would leave the Gaza Strip if they had the chance.
The occupation intentionally inflicts suffering on the Palestinian people and ensures that they live in constant misery and fear. But those who commit such atrocities against innocent people will go to hellfire.
