To those that nonetheless care, this can be the final letter I write from Gaza Metropolis.
We predict Israel to formally concern its “evacuation orders” any time now. My beloved metropolis, Gaza, stands getting ready to a full army occupation by the Israeli military. Their plan is to pressure us all to depart our houses and transfer into tents within the southern a part of the Strip. We have no idea what’s going to occur to those that resist. We could also be residing our final days in Gaza Metropolis.
For the reason that starting of the battle, now we have heard that Israel needs to occupy our metropolis and take it as a settlement space for its individuals. At first, we didn’t imagine it; we thought this type of information was psychological warfare. In any case, now we have had “evacuation orders” earlier than and other people had been capable of return, even when it was to the ruins of their houses.
On October 13, shortly after the genocide began, the Israeli military advised everybody in northern Gaza, together with Gaza Metropolis, to maneuver south. The orders had been accompanied by relentless bombardment. A whole lot would typically die in a day. A whole lot of hundreds of individuals fled south for his or her lives.
We didn’t. My father refused to depart our dwelling, so all of us stayed. We lived in our dwelling for months in insufferable ache and worry. We witnessed the destruction of our neighbourhood with our eyes.
Then the Israeli military minimize off the north from the south. Assist couldn’t attain the north. From January to April 2024, my household and I lived essentially the most suffocating days of the battle. We had been starved; we spent our days looking for something to ease our starvation. Typically, we had been pressured to eat animal feed.
In January this 12 months, when a ceasefire took impact, individuals had been allowed to return to the north. It was an emotional second that mirrored simply how a lot we, Palestinians, are hooked up to our land.
This time, the ambiance feels totally different. It feels that the specter of everlasting occupation, of everlasting loss, may be very actual.
“In preparation for the switch of civilians from the battle zone to the south … numerous tents and shelter tools will likely be allowed to enter [Gaza]”, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on Fb.
Folks throughout Gaza learn this information with a heavy coronary heart. There are lots of questions and few solutions: The place will we flee? When will this begin? Will anybody intervene and cease this disaster?
Persons are overwhelmed – emotionally, mentally, bodily, financially; they can’t endure any extra struggling.
Since my household and I heard this announcement, now we have been taking a look at one another with confused, fearful eyes.
After I noticed pictures on social media of tents and tarpaulins getting into Gaza Metropolis, my coronary heart broke into 1,000,000 items. The considered my future being stuffed right into a tent terrified me. My desires are huge; how can I match them right into a small tent?
I advised my father I don’t wish to reside in a tent. Tears had been rolling down my cheeks. He checked out me with helplessness in his eyes and stated, “We shouldn’t have one other selection, the tent is changing into our new actuality.”
We don’t wish to depart, however we really feel we shouldn’t have a selection. We don’t suppose we are able to endure the relentless bombardment and shelling as soon as once more. The Israelis will probably be much more brutal once they invade this time. It won’t be punishment this time; it will likely be complete erasure.
Feeling the tip of their metropolis is coming, persons are spending what they worry could also be their final days in it with their households, having their single meal for the day, collectively. They’re strolling round their neighbourhoods, taking footage of themselves with the locations tied to their childhood recollections, capturing all the things that may be erased.
I write these phrases, sitting in a shared workspace the place many college students and writers try to combat the worry of what’s to come back by finding out and dealing. They’re hanging on to their work routines, hoping for some normalcy amid the terrifying chaos.
Folks in Gaza love life, even when life means surviving by the naked minimal. Even within the darkest moments, we all the time discover a method to have hope, pleasure, and happiness.
I wish to have hope, however I’m additionally terrified – not solely of the bombs, of pressured displacement, of tents and exile. I’m petrified of being minimize off from the world, of being silenced.
I really feel like what Israel is getting ready for us within the south is a focus camp the place we will likely be minimize off from the world, our voices muffled, our existence erased.
I have no idea how for much longer my phrases will attain the skin world, so I wish to take this chance to make an attraction.
Don’t forget me, Sara Awad, a Palestinian pupil, whose largest dream is to complete her diploma in English literature and turn out to be an expert journalist.
Don’t forget the individuals of Gaza and their 2 million tales of affection, heartbreak and perseverance.
Don’t forget my metropolis, Gaza – an historic metropolis, filled with historical past and tradition, full of affection.
Don’t forget how fiercely we resisted and held on to our houses and land, even when the world all however deserted us.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
