'It is really scary': Gaza student shares her perspective on life in besieged enclave

TRT World recently spoke to Mariam Khateeb about her experiences in Gaza since the bombing began. Khateeb is a member of We Are Not Numbers, a project to help young adults in Gaza share their narratives with the Western world and bust stereotypes about Palestinians. Here is her story in her own words, as told to Shabina S. Khatri.

I am Mariam Khateeb, I am 20 years old. It’s about 35 days that we’re under this aggression. More than 10,000 people passed away, more than 5,000 children killed. There’s more than 2,000 people under the rubble and we don’t know anything about them.

In the beginning, Israel targeted and bombed all supermarkets and malls. There is nothing to buy and nothing to sell in the remaining markets. No one has flour inside their house. We are waiting as they say some help is coming from outside. Maybe they have flour or not. There’s more than 1.5 million people inside a small area so there’s no more flour in the south.

What’s happening to us is a big catastrophe, worse than our ancestors. People in Gaza don’t have a cucumber, they don’t have a tomato. They can’t hear the athan, there’s no mosque to tell people it’s time to pray, there’s no way to tell people if there’s bread, there’s no way to bake bread.

Life has stopped in Palestine, in Gaza. There is nothing to do. There are no hospitals. There are no schools, there is no life. We want to feel that we have rights to live.

When we are thirsty, we want to drink water. What we are drinking is salty water, it’s polluted. When we are hungry, we want to eat, but there’s nothing to eat. When we are scared, we can’t turn on the light because there’s no light, there’s no electricity. When we pass away, no one can find our bodies.

If it’s raining, people in the camps will die because there’s no way to protect them. They sleep in the street, there is no safe area.

I want to continue my medical school but I stopped because my university was bombed and the doctors (my teachers) at university have passed away. I lost more than five of my best friends, I hope they rest in peace.

Every one of them had dreams, and I lost them in a bad way. There is no communication to know how they are, how they died. How to get any news about them?

We are living in south Gaza after my home was bombed in the north. There are more than 60 people in my house. My father counts us every morning when we wake up. He says, ‘I have three daughters, I have three sons, are they still alive?’

There are some people stuck in the north who want to try to go south. They walk on their legs, they see Israeli soldiers, and they look at them and think maybe they (the soldiers) will attack them and arrest them.

The children walking by the Israeli soldiers are so afraid. On the road they see people who have died, someone without hands or a head. They are walking in this rubble. They are afraid if they look left to right they will be killed. They are walking more than four hours. There is no safety in this road because of attacks from the Israeli army.

The Israeli Army has occupied all the hospitals. Their soldiers are around and inside the hospitals. In these hospitals more than 15,000 people are there because they saw it as a safe place, but now they’re under attack. To death or death, there is no choice. Death in the hospital or death in the road.

I’m tired and I’m sick and I have a virus and I don't have the medicine. I can’t go to the hospital for healthcare. My mother is tired and we can’t go. My grandmother has cancer and we can’t take her to the hospital to help her.

Also in our area they bombed a big tower, and all the families in this tower passed away. Only one father survived. Now he’s lost his mind because all of his family passed away.

There’s no equipment to dig them out. There’s no blood, everything is under rubble. We don’t know if we will find a hand or head to know what happened.

The people say we are starting this attack because of Hamas, but we are the citizens of this land. We are now refugees. My home is not in Gaza, my home is in Qatra. My grandfather, the Israelis took him from his house. We have rights to defend our land. We want our houses, we want to feel that we are human.

If I want to talk about children in Gaza, they have the certificate of death before their certificate of birth. Do they think children want to attack Israel?

We can’t see our capitol. I am Mariam, 20 years old, I’ve never seen Jerusalem. The distance between Jerusalem and Gaza is 16 km only. My friend in Ramallah, I can’t go to see her. We wanted to be doctors. And we have a future and they are bombing us. When I have a certificate from medical school, (do they think) I will target them? Where are my rights?

It is very scary because you feel that it’s time to pass away. We are crying, we are very afraid of the Israeli killers. We left our homes, we left everything. My aunts are crying, my grandmother in her leg she has a haemorrhage and is bleeding because of the long distance (she walked). The children are afraid. It’s really really scary.