Latest violence shatters lives of Gazans
GAZA city: Lying in a Gaza hospital, Najwa Abu Aisha said she stood on the roof of her home when shrapnel sliced through her spinal cord in the latest cross-border violence.
“I was on the roof checking the water barrels, (when) suddenly I heard the sound of an explosion which caused the water barrel to fall on me. I fell on the neighbour’s house and, ater that, I didn’t feel anything,” she said.
The 48-year-old is one of 190 people health authorities in the coastal enclave said were wounded in five days of fighting last week between Palestinians and Israel, which killed 35 people.
Abu Aisha has no memory of what caused the explosion — whether it was outgoing or incoming fire — and her son who was with her remains unable to talk about what happened to his mother.
The family told reporters their home in northern Gaza City is beside a site used by Islamic Jihad.
“I’m half paralysed, I have pain that’s not normal and I can’t bear any movement of my body,” said Abu Aisha.
“I’m tired,” she said, surrounded by family in a private room within Shifa hospital.
Doctor Moatasem Al Nono, who was supervising Abu Aisha’s case, said the wound to her spinal cord was so severe there is no hope of her regaining movement in her lower limbs.
Her condition has also cut off a vital income for the family in the blockaded Gaza Strip, where unemployment is rife, as she is no longer able to work in the local kindergarten.
Antique collector Hazem Muhanna, 62, said the destruction of his home in an Israeli strike on Gaza City “destroyed our dreams and our future.”
“If they destroyed my house and five other houses, it would be easier on me than destroying the antiques and artefacts that I cherish,” said Muhanna, holding up old bank notes and an engraved jug recovered from the ruins.
A retired security guard, Muhanna had for decades used part of his salary to collect antiques and display them in his home “like a museum.”
Multiple children and civilians were among 33 people killed in Gaza, while one Israeli and a Gazan labourer were killed in Israel.
Mohammed Sarsour, 29, was weeks away from his wedding and had just finished preparing his apartment for married life when his neighbour told him they were about to be bombed.
“Then I went home and I couldn’t find anything. No window, no bedroom or door,” he said, in the central Deir Al Balah district.