Words from Gaza: "Life Is Precious & Worth Fighting For"

Tweet Random sampling of stories from inside Gaza from the Palestine Solidarity Project: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/

Ghada Snunu, 30, Gaza City, human rights worker

"What is happening here is unbelievable, it's shocking – a catastrophe. We've been living a nightmare for the past two days because of what's happening around us.

I fear for myself, my family and the people I care about. In all my life, I've never had such a bad feeling.

The children, my nephew and niece, are so scared. They hide under the beds, terrified, and I can do nothing to help them, except to sing soothing words to them. But nothing can help them in this situation.


We need serious action to be taken right now to end this violence against our people. I am so angry with the world – we hear nothing but words and there is no action, no real change. Enough, we are sick of hearing just words even from the Arab countries. We are human beings living here in Gaza just like animals – although maybe animals live in better conditions. We don't have medicine, food, cooking gas, fuel, power – we haven't seen electricity for a week now.

Every single person in Gaza is in a very bad psychological state – what is happening here is urging you to be unhappy, it is pushing you into despair. I feel depressed and sick and bored of everything around me – also because of the internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah.

I feel so bad for our people being separated from each other – we should unite in this bad situation. But while we are under siege and ongoing attacks, Hamas and Fatah are still fighting. This is the time for them to re-unite and work together and put an end to this deteriorating situation.

In the beginning I thought that Israel is targeting Hamas, but then I saw houses and other buildings and roads being destroyed, and innocent people being killed and injured. Now I think that Israel is targeting Gaza and not Hamas.

We never expected an attack of this scale and this number of people killed. It is a massacre. I didn't believe my own eyes at first, because it is so disgusting to see such a thing."

Hatem Shurrab, aid worker in Gaza

"The situation is getting worse day by day.

They're targeting everything. We don't know when or where they will strike next. They're hitting hospitals, medical centres, universities, homes, security centres, police.

This morning five young sisters who lived near a mosque were killed. This is one story among hundreds.

We are trying to provide support for hospitals but they are not able to deal with the injured. They have no space, no equipment. People are being treated outside hospitals on the streets.

I'm homeless now after my home was destroyed.

My family is afraid. My little nephew starts crying every time he hears an explosion. My mother tries to not let me go to work.

The streets are almost empty. The only crowds are near bakeries. Lots of people are staying at home and trying to hide."

Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA director in Gaza

"The problem is very complicated. Even before the bombing Gaza was in need of everything.

Hospitals lack everything - equipment, doctors. The world should help.

We hear that Israel opened the crossing today for materials etc. We're welcoming this step but it is not enough. Israel should open it not just for a few hours or a few days.

The people feel very angry and abandoned. What they want before anything else is to stop the killing.

Education has been suspended, not allowing school children and teachers to go to school. Medical workers are not going to work because of the danger.

Eight of our students were killed by a rocket as they left their classrooms to get the bus home."

Baha' Enaya, Gaza, engineer

"At the beginning the targets were mainly stations of security forces, but later the operations expanded and targets also included police stations, societies, organisations and other infrastructure.

Those targets are just in the middle of residential areas because of the nature of the surface in Gaza and the high density of the population. Naturally, the casualties will mostly be civilian.

"... It is just an episode in a bigger project which aims to kill people's will"