we are not numbers

emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights

When school shelters are targeted

A family took refuge in Kuwait School, then Israeli shelling destroyed nearly everything. Yet dreams survive.
Asma Azme Amra.
Injured girl with bandaged hands lying on blanket.
The injured Salwa. Photo: Asma Abu Abra

 

In a small corner of Al-Aqsa Hospital with less than two meters of space, Zainab Al-Basiouni, 19, her younger sister, Salwa, 5, and her mother are survivors of what should have been certain death.

Zainab had taken refuge in Kuwait School, where she had thought she was safe. “I was displaced from Beit-Hanoun to the school due to the heavy bombing around us,” she recalls.

Many school shelters were directly bombed, including the school where Zainab took shelter.

On Nov. 20, the Israeli army stormed the Al-Indandwasi (Indonesian) Hospital nearby and attacked the school in the process.

“At 4:30 a.m., without prior notice to evacuate, the Israeli army started firing shells at the school. They hit our classroom with two shells. The first shell struck the light, and the classroom became pitch black,” she explains.

“Everyone started screaming. I felt like I was in a horror movie. Fires started flaring up in the classroom with the second missile, and I hid in a corner close by.”

“I saw my father, Falah, and eldest brother, Mohamed, burn before my eyes, and I couldn’t help them.”

“The fire started to reach me, and I began screaming. I thought to myself, ‘No one hears me crying; I will die.’”

At that point, Zainab suddenly saw her little sister, Salwa, catch fire.

“I quickly jumped out of the fire, taking my sister. After that, I pushed myself off the third floor and out the window to the schoolyard.”

When Zainab woke up, she learned her spine was broken. She was no longer able to move. Her legs had third-degree burns, and all of her sister Salwa’s body was burned.

She was in the Al-Indanwasi Hospital, which was still under attack, and she and other injured people were soon forced to evacuate to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the south.

“I spent three days in the ambulance, travelling from north to south Gaza. It usually takes half an hour to arrive. The Israeli army stopped the ambulance on the road and forced the medics to take the patients out and leave us in the sun.”

“It was all happening while I was lying down, unable to move. The ambulance was stopped more than once on the way, and five doctors were arrested. Besides that, the streets were uneven, which made the pain worse. The journey was unbearable.”

Evaporating plans

When Zainab graduated from high school last July, she had an excellent GPA and had many dreams.

“I was over the moon when I got 95% at Tawjihi, the last stage of school education. I decided to enroll at the Islamic University, majoring in business administration, because I love business life.”

Zainab’s dreams were to study at the Islamic University and then travel abroad, but her plans could not come to fruition.

Not even a month after she started at Islamic University, the Israelis destroyed it.

“The destruction of my beautiful university shatters all my dreams.”

Zainab had also made plans to apply for study abroad programs. “My father had gotten my passport ready for me. Moreover, my eldest brother, Mohamed, 20, completed all his passport procedures exactly on Thursday, Oct. 5, just two days before the war started.

“I was so pleased when our passports became ready because my dream since childhood has been to study abroad. I would be able to travel and achieve my dream of studying outside of Gaza.

“Unfortunately, my passport was burned in the classroom. My passport was burned, as was my heart.

“My brother was burned, my passport was burned, and my father, who promised me that he would be with me every minute of the university life, was burned. My university was destroyed, and I was no longer able to move; I was left with nothing.

“Things got worse when the doctor told me that I wouldn’t be able to walk and needed three months at least to heal. Then I realized all my dreams had vanished.”

Close father-daughter relationship

“My father meant everything to me. All the choices I made and opportunities I had came from my father.”

Zainab feels so proud of having had a father like him.

“My relationship with my father was unlike any other relationship I’ve seen between a daughter and a father.

“He is the person I trusted most. My saddest feeling is that I will not be able to tell him everything that happened to me, where I went, and what I did.

“My dream is to be able to walk, complete my studies, travel, and achieve my ambitions.”

Injured girl with bandaged hands lying on blanket.

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