My name is Ahmed and I am 26 years old. I am writing to you from the Gaza Strip at a time when drones are flying over my head, and I am with 18 refugees in the same apartment, after two days and two nights of extreme terror, in addition to the previous 66 days, and even though the network is unstable; I was able to send my story to you.
This is the introduction to a letter in the blogs of the Media Part website, from a student residing in Gaza, addressed to the representatives and to the French people in general, in which he describes his situation and circumstances and what he lives with the people of Gaza under the roar of drones, and the bombing of planes and tanks in a war that does not last or leave.
Ahmed begins the story of his life, saying that the beginning was when his family was forcefully expelled in 1948 from the village of Nabi Rubin, near present-day Tel Aviv, to find refuge in Gaza, where he was born in 1997 and where he lived, and over the age of twenty-six, he went through 4 “wars,” and he has been there since the seventh of October 2023, he is experiencing the fifth and perhaps the last war.
I no longer know Gaza
Although life in Gaza before the start of the war was not normal under the ongoing siege, it had its pleasures: play, fun, the smells of delicious dishes, and the warmth of the family home.
In Gaza yesterday, “I was looking out my window, hoping to come one day to study in France. I was watching Paris Saint-Germain’s matches, hoping to see Mbappé play in real life. I imagined myself wandering the streets of Paris and going to the cinema.”
“However, as Ahmed writes, since last December 12, I no longer know Gaza. Israeli bombs have destroyed 60% of our homes. Our hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, churches, companies, and archive centers have been bombed. Today my university is closed. The French institute where I attended was also bombed.” One day.”
“In Gaza today, it is the color of red blood that flows and spreads. It is the smell of death that spreads everywhere. In Gaza today, all the lights have gone out. We no longer hear the children playing. We hear drones flying above us all day. We hear the sounds of rockets bombing neighboring houses. In Gaza, we only hear the cries of the victims and those trapped under the rubble, and the wails of those crying for their children and families.”
In Gaza today, the blue of the sky has been replaced by fog and dust clouds caused by Israeli bombing. In Gaza today, we grew up in our twenties. In Gaza today, we drink unhealthy water and only eat one meal a day if we are lucky.”
I will live between heartbreak and hope
We in Gaza today await our hour like those sentenced to death. What kind of life is this? Ahmed asks, remembering that one must stay at all costs because leaving is what Israel wants. To rise up again, asking: Are we obligated to pay with our bodies for this right to exist? Don’t we have the right to life? Are we all doomed to die just because we live in Gaza?
I am a young Palestinian man and I aspire to live – Ahmed says – I long for a normal life. I am neither “Superman” nor a human animal, so I decided, with my family’s blessing, to escape this hell if I had the opportunity to fulfill my dream of coming to France, where I was accepted into a prestigious university in Paris.
That was a moment of happiness that was quickly overtaken by reality – as Ahmed says – bombs were raining down on us and I did not know whether I would live until tomorrow. My present was at a standstill and my future was on hold. My first visa application was rejected within 10 minutes. Because I did not personally go to the consulate in Jerusalem, which is impossible for any citizen of Gaza, which has been under siege since 2007.
I asked for my file to be reviewed and for France to help me leave my country, which is being bombed. If I am lucky and survive the dangers of the road to the Egyptian border, I will have to cross the checkpoint after looking at my land and all the life I left behind. If I leave tomorrow I don’t know when I will see my country again. I will live between heartbreak and hope.
