Nadia is a 27-year-old woman whose days were full of life. She would wake up to the sound of birds and the morning calm, then prepare food for her children before they would go to school, bidding them goodbye with a gentle kiss. Then she would wake her husband so he could have breakfast before heading to work. Hours would pass as Nadia would clean the house.
In the afternoon, she would go to have coffee with her neighbors, then her children would return home, each one wanting to share what happened to them throughout the day. After her husband returned from work, they all went to a nice restaurant chosen by Ali, the mischievous one. Then, when they returned home, the children did their homework and slept peacefully after a long, tiring yet beautiful day.
This was Nadia’s life, but it wasn’t just Nadia; this was the life of most people in Gaza — calm and beautiful, free from oppression and pain. But as they say, nothing stays the same. Today, Nadia longs for just one moment from those beautiful days with her husband and children around her. Now, Nadia bears the weight of her children’s futures on her shoulders, a burden made heavier by the absence of her husband, a casualty of war.
On the morning of March 23, 2024, Nadia received the news of her husband’s martyrdom. He had remained steadfast in northern Gaza, helping the needy and the poor while Nadia and her children fled to the supposed “safe zone” in southern Gaza. The neighborhood where he lived had been besieged by the occupying forces for three days, and then the soldiers brought in dogs to flush out everyone from their homes. They opened fire on them, killing them all. Tanks ran over the bodies that were on the ground. This horrific massacre was not the only one, but it turned the lives of Nadia and her children upside down, from a pampered woman to a woman who bears the burden of three children alone without a breadwinner, and from happy children with their family to children searching for their father in every face they see.
Nadia’s pregnancy adds another layer of worry. The lack of proper medical care looms large. She suffers from emaciation due to the lack of vegetables necessary to provide her with vitamins, and all of this combines with the risk of miscarriage, a shadow that darkens her hopes for a safe delivery. The pain of pregnancy cramps gnaw at her.
Now Nadia’s morning begins at 6 o’clock. She carries wood and some leaves to light a fire to cook food. Meanwhile, her children wake up to the sound of violent bombing, even in the designated “safe zone.” They give their mother a gentle smile in an attempt to relieve her of what she is going through. Then 9-year-old Ali goes to the water line and remains standing under the scorching sun for six hours. Sometimes he returns without water. This tedium has replaced his mischievousness with fatigue.
Maryam goes with her mother to the sea to wash clothes, due to the lack of fresh water. Meanwhile, the youngest, Mahmoud, remains guarding the tent for fear of any poisonous snakes or scorpions entering it.
As Nadia prepares her family’s meal, she is stained with ash, her clothes dirty, and her eyes watering from the gases emanating from the fire in the high heat of the air. She cooks lentils because this is the only food available in the markets, given the scarcity of foodstuffs and also their high prices. The children remain on this meal for an entire day.
As the sun begins to set, fear begins to dominate the atmosphere because bombing at night is much more difficult, even though it has the same result as during the day. The night is lonely. Nadia does not sleep until she is sure that her children have fallen asleep, after struggling with them asking about their dead father. Nadia replies that he sees them all from heaven.
They sleep with a lot on their minds. The children have many questions, and Nadia even more. Her burden is heavy, with another child in her womb who will be born and will never see his father. Then she falls asleep from extreme fatigue, only to wake up to another day; a renewed nightmare.
