Conflict turns into ‘horror movie’ for Gazan teens
Gazan teenager Mohammed Najib said on Friday that Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave and the barrages of rockets unleashed by Palestinian groups was like “watching a horror movie”.
Najib, 16, has had a frontline view of the battles raging since Monday from his family home in Rimal, a neighbourhood close to the centre of Gaza City.
Fireballs have lit up the night sky over the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as Israel and Palestinian groups battle, with tower buildings levelled in massive Israeli air strikes.
One of the targets was the 14-storey Al Shuruq building, not far from Najib’s home. “It was horrifying” to see it collapse on Wednesday, Najib said.
“This crazy bombardment is like an electronic video game, it’s like watching a horror movie,” he said.
Najib said he was just “a child” during the last large-scale confrontation between Israel and Gaza’s armed groups in 2014.
“We used to hide under the staircase when there was bombardment but now... there is no place to hide.”
Now, he is even afraid to go to the bathroom in case the bombardment starts. “I’m afraid of dying inside the bathroom,” he said.
Since Monday, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Gaza, pounded it with hundreds of mortar rounds and massed troops around the enclave ready for a possible ground offensive.
Palestinian groups have launched more than 2,000 rockets at Israeli cities and towns from Gaza.
At least 122 people have been killed in the densely-populated coastal enclave, and nine on the Israeli side.
Among those killed in Gaza were several Hamas leaders but the Palestinian group has remained defiant.
Najib’s fears are shared by young and old in Gaza.
“I used to like to stay up at night, but now I hate it,” because that is when Israeli air strikes pound Gaza and Palestinian activists fire rockets, said Dima Tallal, 17.
“The last four days I hardly slept, I am terrified like never before,” she added.
The escalation was triggered by a weekend of unrest at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
The unrest, in which riot police repeatedly clashed with Palestinians, was driven by anger over the looming evictions of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem.
The violence has marred celebrations for Eid al Fitr which started on Thursday, marking the end of Ramadhan.
I used to like to stay up at night, but now I hate it. The last four days I hardly slept, I am terrified like never before
DIMA TALLAL, 17 from Gaza