The Electronic Intifada 21 December 2023
People are doing their best to continue with their daily lives.
APA imagesI never imagined the horrible situation in which we find ourselves.
We cannot enjoy the sunrise because of the bombings and the destruction.
Basic necessities like food, water and electricity are in short supply. Crossings through which goods are supposed to flow have been closed.
For two and a half months, Israel has been waging a genocidal war against us. Our living conditions are miserable.
Yet we remain creative in the face of adversity.
I heard my father say to my mother, “Did the electricity come back? We need it to make bread.”
“Sorry, it didn’t,” my mother replied.
Here is where my father’s creativity shone.
Our pressure cooker usually needs electricity to function. But my dad transformed it so that it could run on coal.
He was fully aware that coal can be harmful, especially for people like my mother, who has health issues. But we have to be flexible so that we can survive.
What choice do we have? We just want to live.
Baking bread should only take about an hour. Now it takes four or five hours.
Everyone involved in the process gets a back ache.
My brothers Younes and Nader travel long distances to schools and hospitals so that they can fetch water.
Unfortunately, some children end up drinking polluted water, which makes them ill.
People living in makeshift tents endure harsh conditions, especially when it rains.
Making coffee with a candle
I have heard about a man who did not have any food for his children. What did he do?
He slaughtered a donkey, so they could have some meat. It is the worst crisis this man has ever faced, watching his children go hungry without being able to do anything for them.
During these wintry nights, my family gathers around a candle. Lighting a fire is not an option.
There is a concern that Israel might mistake any fire as a resistance operation and bomb the home where the fire has been lit.
Despite our fears, my family has shown some ingenuity in ensuring that we have hot drinks at night.
My brother came up with the idea of breaking a candle and placing it in a dish. We then put a coffee maker on top of the dish.
This is how we warm our hearts.
We miss sleeping peacefully in our own beds. Instead, we now use blankets provided by refugee agencies.
Two of us share the same bed. It is a challenging situation but we will never give up.
Never!
Most vegetables are unavailable in shops. So we have bought seeds and are trying to grow our own food.
We have waited weeks for it to grow. How can we cope with the uncertainty?
I was taken aback when I saw a man picking up some dough from the remains of a house that had been bombed.
“What are you doing?” someone asked him.
“I am taking the dough for my family,” he said.
Honor
We are exhausted.
Yes, we are resilient. But we cannot endure seeing our families starve to death.
My sister-in-law is pregnant and she really wants sweets. Sadly, there are none in the markets.
I have made her some, using sugar, water and sesame.
I crave cheese. The shops have none of it, either.
Thankfully, my grandmother made some at home. It was delicious.
Despite our misery, we are still alive. If we die, it will be with honor.
This horrible war causes particular health problems for women.
Sanitary pads are unavailable, so we use diapers – for babies – as a substitute. Others cut pieces of cloth from tents.
These are the kind of makeshift solutions we have to find. It is an extraordinarily difficult and tragic situation.
Can you empathize with our plight?
We encountered major hardships previously.
During Israel’s war against Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, our family also gathered around a candle.
We couldn’t find a sewing machine then, so we designed one using bicycle wheels. That’s how we knitted clothes.
Gazans often invent remarkable things from practically nothing as we strive to stay alive.
It feels like Israel aims to wipe us out. Please do not turn your eyes away from the horrors we are going through.
Israel massacres and humiliates us and demolishes our homes. But Gazans will never lose.
Clever people will emerge victorious, leaving the entire world astonished.
Wedad Jalal Yousef Al-Hallaq is a teacher in Gaza.
