"I am Ready to Die, Here in Gaza"

She is a 21-year-old student in Gaza. She has survived many Israeli military attacks. The Israeli army assassinated two of her uncles and two of her cousins. This is her story

- Marah Shamali

I don’t know where to start or what to say about the current situation here in Gaza because we are not numbers. Everyone has a story to tell! It is my destiny that I was born in a geographical area where wars and sieges haven’t stopped since my birth. I have survived three wars but was not sure I would survive this one. During the 2008 Israeli aggression, I was nine years old; in the 2012 Israeli assault, I was 13 years old; in 2014, I was 15 years old. And here I am, 22 now! I still remember vividly when the Israeli occupation forces bombed us directly in 2014. My mother and brother were seriously injured, but miraculously, we survived.

The story is too long to tell, but the scars of the 2014 war have not yet been erased by time, and the 2021 Israeli aggression brought back these painful memories, as time repeats itself. At the beginning of every Israeli assault, my mother sends us to my grandfather’s house. Is that strange? Of course not! Actually, this is what every Gazan family does to make sure that if the occupation strikes the house, at least one or two of them would survive and the entire family would not be completely obliterated.