This is what the Israeli army left behind after its withdrawal from one of the areas of Gaza (Anatolia)

4 months ago, a violent Israeli bombardment began on the Gaza Strip, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced a “complete siege” on 2.3 million Palestinians, describing them as “human animals” and ordering that they would receive “no water, no gas, no electricity,” and no food. Also, Israel then asked the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to flee to the south.

At the same time, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) warned of a “second Nakba,” even though the Nakba never actually stopped. What should the residents of Gaza do? Where do they go?

With this introduction, Lacroix opened a long conversation on WhatsApp between her journalist, Vincien Jolie, and a young Palestinian man named Ahmed, whom she met through a mutual friend she met in Bethlehem. Ahmed told her about his daily life under the bombs, so that their correspondence formed a unique document about this war.

October 13

The correspondence between the journalist and Ahmed began 6 days after the start of the aggression, about what he would do after Israel ordered the Palestinians to leave for the southern Gaza Strip. He responded, “I stay in Gaza,” adding, “Even if we wanted to leave, we cannot do so. There is no means of transportation and all communications are cut off.” "Those who do not have a car are stuck. I am talking to you under the sound of bombs constantly exploding. There is no longer electricity and we no longer have water."

Ahmed's phone went off, but he later sent three brief messages to say, "This Israeli matter is a new catastrophe and a new forced expulsion to expel us to Egypt. And the world is talking about humanity? I hope that this cruel war that we are suffering from will stop as we live our last days. We will complain of the world to God when we meet Him." Now you can talk to us, tomorrow you can cry for us."

Days and nights pass with disastrous news about the bombing of refugee camps, waiting for a ceasefire that does not come, the negativity of the Arab countries and the indifference of the West, then comes the ground invasion and with it a complete blackout, and Israel attacks hospitals, schools, ambulances, universities, markets, mosques and churches, so “there is no safe place” as The United Nations says.

After 4 months of war, Lacroix’s journalist says that she realized, when Ahmed was under fire in Khan Yunis, where he had taken refuge, that this conversation was a document that was tracing a repressed war through the eyes of a besieged young man, narrating his daily life and sharing his fears and sadness, and therefore “we wanted to make... This unique voice will be heard, through which we will raise the stifled voices of the Palestinians in Gaza, and let us restore their humanity, which is sometimes erased by political considerations.”

November 11

After the Israeli army issued a warning that every Palestinian who remained “north of the Gaza Valley” would be “considered complicit with a terrorist organization,” I decided to write to Ahmed, who did not want to flee his home. He responded that he had taken the path of exile and was in Khan Yunis, where his family was hosting him. He knows her, along with other friends, and now he has to search for food.

The connection was cut off before it was restored on December 6, and Ahmed said the reason was the loss of the Internet and the difficulty of charging phones with the power outage. The conversation continues, describing the bombing, the dead, and the injured in Khan Yunis, and the writer says, "I hear the noise of explosions in the recording he sends me, as if bombs are raining around him."

On December 12, Ahmed writes, “I am not well. The room where I was sleeping with my brothers and friends was bombed. I have missile fragments all over my body. My brother is in intensive care. He lost his leg. My father’s hand is broken and he was injured in his head and eye.” Among the friends who were with us, some died and others were in the hospital.”

Many letters pass by, some of which Ahmed asks the writer to help him take his brother out for treatment abroad, and describes his life divided between caring for his brother in Khan Yunis and visiting the rest of his family in Rafah, and how he began to recover from his injuries.

The response comes from the journalist that she spoke with the French embassies in Jerusalem and Cairo to understand why no progress has been made in the case of Ahmed’s brother, and it seems to her that Israel has the right to veto who enters and exits through the Rafah crossing, and it also prevents the exit of many injured people, and for this reason no one knows. When will Ahmed's brother's name be included in the evacuation list?

Ahmed says, “I still believe that he can leave soon. My brother has no political or party affiliation, and does not belong to any organization. He is an ordinary man who lives only for his wife and son. He only aspires to work and live with them in peace. Unfortunately, the war stole His hope, his passion, his love, his life... and without him being guilty, his leg must be amputated. From now on, we will call him a disabled person.”

January 1

After congratulating the beginning of 2024 and wishing that it will be a year of goodness, security and peace for all those who lost hope, security and peace in the past world, Ahmed states that the

After the surgery, which Ahmed said was painful and lasted 1.5 hours, the writer asked him about his condition on January 9, but did not receive a response until the 16th, with an apology for the absence of the Internet for 6 days. He also sent a picture of his pale face, inky eyes, and a bandage on his forehead and bruised eyelid. He said everyone here was infected with the virus. Everyone is sick, coughing, has a fever or a headache.

“The situation around the hospital is very dangerous,” the young man wrote on January 17. “We are surrounded by fighting and bombings. The bombing never stops. There I hear the sound of bombs exploding. Many of the families who took refuge in the hospital have already left. I fear that a time will come when we will be asked to Evacuate the hospital. And then, where will we go?

On the 19th, Ahmed wrote, “We are living a tragedy. The Internet and communications are cut off. We are isolated from the rest of the world as if we were on another planet. We do not know what the world knows about what is happening here, and about the tragedy we are living in. So spread this message. We hope that the war will end soon.” We hope to return to our lives before the war. Nothing else. We hope to sleep and wake up safe and sound. We hope that this world sympathizes with what we are going through. We hope that we will be treated as human beings.”

The Palestinian young man's last messages were dated February 2, and the Israeli bombing does not stop, and the fighting is still raging in Khan Yunis, especially around hospitals. Ahmed spends his days in Rafah, where he provides services to the NGO he worked for in Gaza. He returns to Khan Yunis in the evening and tries to sleep with his brother Majd, who is still in the hospital and awaiting treatment outside.

Source: Lacroix