one of my days in Gaza

One of my days in Gaza
Thursday 1st of November 2007-11-01
I woke up 5.30am. looked at the extending beautiful Mediterranean from my window , what a lovely day !,I felt the nice autumn Mediterranean breeze , all of a sudden I saw the Israeli gunboat patrolling the sea , may be 1 km away from my apartment , I heard sound of shelling coming from the north part of the town ,heard the local radio announcing the killing of one child a woman and many injured ,I am not to provide you with statistics, but in October alone ,65 Palestinians were killed and tens more injure din Gaza strip
Everyday there are different sorts of military operations and assaults , in different parts of the Gaza Strip, last week and not far from my home, the drone launched a rocket against one of its targets while driving his car, the man was killed in a savage way .
While watching the gunboat patrolling the sea , it was strong message for me ,:wake up YOU LIVE IN Gaza ,where there is no place for any romantic feelings, no place for saying simple thing, like , what a nice day, no place for planning any thing ahead of you , no place for you to enjoy what has been left of the nature , birds stopped singing , the war sound is louder than what left of nature , how can u feel normal when u are surrounded with poverty , unemployment ,crowd , ruins of buildings , destroyed land lack of entertainment ,lack of freedom of movement ,daily violence, lack of safety and the most heartbreaking is living with no vision or hope for future change in the political situation ,
In Gaza we all feel strangulated ,and at the moment there is mass feeling of despair . .
I drank my coffee , and hurried up to my meeting at the Red Crescent Society For Gaza Strip, with the director of the jabalia women centre , we run this centre in Jabalia refugee camp since 2000, it offers holistic care services for women , health , psychological support , health education , legal aid consultations and , keep fit classes ,
in Gaza, when poverty is the rule , unemployment is high , and violence and war atmosphere is the normal ,it is not surprising to find increasing level of domestic violence as an outcome of all the mentioned contributing factors ,35%of Palestinian women in Gaza suffer from Post traumatic stress syndrome , 45% of Gaza children too , at war times it is children and women who takes the brunt of it and pay big price of it ..
On my way to jabalia refugee camp, as I was invited by the AlASRIA youth forum Shababeek or windows, it is a cultural platform or forum, it was founded as youth initiative in Jabalia, the tilte of my lecture is the role of the ISM, inside Palestine,
I have little car accident, my foot was twisted, I changed my direction to AlAwda hospital ER room, the lecture was cancelled, iam fine it was just simple accident

When I write from Gaza , it is not only because I insist to tell you the truth , to spread the word , I also write because I feel it is my way of ventilation, I ventilate by writing to you , it is more like psychological healing and support, everyday I try like others to survive and not to get crushed under the occupation big army foot ,one of my different ways is writing .

I love you all
Mona ElFarra