In a painful testimony written by Palestinian Nour Abu Aisha, and published by the American “Mundois” website, Nour recounts her personal experience during a horrific massacre committed by forces Israeli occupation At Al -Nasr School in Gaza City, which had turned into a refuge for children and families during the war.
In late May, during the massacre of Al -Jarjawi School, the Zionist occupation forces bombed the ranks of tents and shelters in the school arenas.
People burned alive, and the world watched that is broadcast in front of him. The five -year -old Sheikh Khalil responded between the bodies of her burning family, and came out from the flames.
Hunger and bodies
Abu Aisha asked: “What did this child be committed until she is left to wander on her face with an empty belly? On nights in which hunger is treacherous, bodies and blood smells surrounded? How will you narrate the greatest disaster in her life? Small? “.
Abu Aisha continued to tell:
When I saw the footage of the Al -Jarjawi massacre, I remembered what I lived in myself in another school that turned into a shelter.
I was working as a volunteer at Al -Nasr School, taught the English language and more than children. I devoted one of the sessions to psychological support, to give them an opportunity to talk and vent.
The most marginalized
These children are among the most marginalized groups in Gaza, no one hears them or fills their dreams and concerns. They are in humiliating shelters, waiting for food queues, looking for firewood to break it and ignite it, or lined up for a cup of water.
I asked them one by one about what they wanted to become when they grow up.
I expected to hear answers such as: “I want to become an engineer,” but their responses were tragic, not like the dreams of the children of the world.
Aya Al -Doual, 5, told me: “When I am older, I will eat a lot of meat.”
This answer broke me. The guilt of children is not only that their greatest wishes are to live, to eat meat, and end hunger.
In August 2024, north of Gaza was completely separated from the south, and there was no meat in the north.
They dream of eating meat
The Zionist occupation forces issued a message to support the displacement plan: “Whoever wants food, let him go to the south of the valley in peace.” The mothers remained in the north, while their children talk about meat as a distant dream.
My nephew, Omar, was 3 years old, he saw the sardines for the first time after a year and a half of the war, and referred to the fish saying: “This is a snake.”
Is there a child in this world that does not know the shape of fish? Or even fruit?
On August 4, 2024, and after I finished my volunteer work, I went out of the classroom to Al -Nasr School Park. I was invoking in my mind, composed by Hamdi, running for music when the language was unable to express.
I saw my students playing in the garden. I called them, saying, “Come on, students, go back to your family. The session is over.” But they begged: “Please, a teacher, let’s play a little.”
Their bodies fly in the air
After only 5 minutes, I heard a missile sound that hit the building directly to the garden. That sound is still hesitating in my ears so far. At that moment, I fell to the ground, and shouted. Then I screamed again, and I was feeling my body, checking my arms and legs, afraid that I had lost something from it.
When the missile fell, the place turned into thick fog. I did not see anything, not even my students. Some of them, their fragile small bodies flew in the air. Others survived that he left the school moments before the bombing.
The administration started screaming: “Go out, and look at what is still alive and who died!” I stood up and ran. My face is pale from the shock, my body is exhausted, and my soul is terrified.
My uncle arrived in his car to take me to my family. On our way, we stopped at the hospital, and we took some of the injured with us, including nurse girls who were working in school. We did not tell them that their mother is still under the rubble.
I survived miraculously
More than two months after I survived the Al -Nasr School massacre, I found the courage to return to the place where I almost lost my life. I couldn’t believe that I was only 600 meters from the missile and Najout site. Even the school principal told me:
“Nour, how were you so close to the missile and a spare, while students died far beyond? It is really a miracle.”
Now I ask myself:
Did I survive to tell you what happened in those moments?
On that day, I saw Noureddine Miqdad, who lost his entire family in the shelling of the school.
He had gone out to buy something, and he did not know that no one would wait for him when he returned. His family was eating her last meal. I remember how his mother was telling me: “Nour El -Din is an intelligent student, but he is stubborn and difficult. His teachers were patient with him. The war changed him.”
After the bombing, Noureddine spent weeks embracing the graves of his mother, father and brothers.
What will he do now?
How can he bear what the war did with it?
I stole everything from him … and became alone.