Editor’s Note: The following article is part of a campaign to raise money to help Mondoweiss contributor Azhaar Amayreh and her family leave Gaza. Please give what you can.
The once sleepy old border-crossing town of Rafah has now grown rapidly in size. In the past few months, it has become a megalopolis of refugees for all downtrodden souls from across every inch of Gaza.
As the seconds, minutes, and hours go by, everybody here is simply counting down to zero-hour when it will start raining hell. We wait for bombs, bullets, and much more, utter mayhem. Zero-hour – that’s when we will be nullified… or are supposed to be nullified.
Surrounded by this sea of humanity and unimaginable suffering right in one’s plain sight, I feel very selfish and self-centered as my thoughts turn toward myself. But at this very moment, I’m so desperately concerned about the future of my young daughter, my young child.
Musa, Moses, once fled the pharaohs to this side of the Sinai, but I and my daughter now hope to flee the Israelis to Egypt to save our lives…Insha’Allah.
I stare at a photo of her from much happier days. She’s snacking on a burger and sipping on not-so-fresh mango juice from a Tetra Pak. I remember the moment: because of my excessive workload, I missed cooking an afternoon meal for her. I was unable to prepare her daily veggies for her lunchtime or pack the mandatory fresh juice or assorted fruit cocktail (her all-time favorite), nuts, and the like. I felt very guilty then…that I wasn’t giving my child the most nutritious stuff on that particular day when she came home from school. This should have been a “freshly” cooked wholesome meal, with a freshly made mango shake or some freshly made fruit yogurt. But now, in our current condition, just looking at her eating that combination of a sesame seed-laden fresh bun, cheese, mayo spread, some lettuce, and the grilled chicken patty that I had hurriedly ordered at the nearby cafeteria…just this mundane everyday photo brings such immense joy to my maternal heart. It feels a lifetime away.
Quite frankly, I don’t think we will make it out alive once the ground invasion of Rafah starts. We have all seen how Israel’s weapons are made by the devil. Designed to kill, to blow the target up a million times over…to harm the most innocent of men, women, and children…to attack and slaughter, shred to bits the easiest of sitting prey, attack in from all sides…including from above our heads, and below our feet…all with the touch of a button, or easier and simpler still for these vicious attackers…by way of a mouse click. It dawns on me that my daughter and I are a mouse click away from the jaws of death. This is honestly what I see coming our way in Rafah.
But then again, there is this longing…this little hope, in some very remote corner of me, that we may just survive with the grace of the Almighty. With the grace of Allah, I and my daughter will see the light of day. That I will witness my daughter recite verses of the Holy Quran…recite verses of our deep faith…because I don’t think Israel can fathom God’s all-encompassing might, God’s holy will, God’s ultimate power.
If you can, please contribute; it just might be able to help us cross the Rafah border. A passage to safety for me and for my child…the Heavens / the Almighty God willing.
Are we ok with contributing money for the implementation of the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine?
All this time Egypt has stated emphatically that will not be a single Gazan going into the Sinai Desert . So why now with the Sinai Desert Wall being built. Also been reading a lot about the Ground invasion happens in Rafah that is the red line and will cause issues with their treaty with Zionist State of Israel. Something is not adding up here.