In Gaza, I sleep to the sound of bombing and the martyrdom of a family, and I wake up to the sound of bombing and the martyrdom of children. My whole life is in fear and anxiety; bombing from everywhere comes without warning.

I used to wake up to find breakfast, but now I wait in line at the bakery for 4 hours to get bread.

I wake up and grab my phone to check on my friends, but they don’t answer because the internet is cut off to almost all of Gaza.

There is no water day in our house, so I wait 2 hours to get some water from the mosque. There is no electricity, no water, no internet, and no meaning to life. Gaza has been devastated by the bombing of the Zionist occupation.

We use a small battery to charge all my family and my relatives’ phones once a day. We sleep with candles lit that cause clothes to burn when our house shakes from an Israeli bombing. The drones do not leave the sky, and their annoying sound as well. I don’t sleep at night because of the intense Israeli bombing at night. We are breathing our last breath.

Editor’s note: This essay was submitted by Hamza Ibrahim via text messaging to his mentor on Oct. 17, 2023.