MIDDLE EAST
LIFE IN GAZA
YOUSEF Hammash watched in horror as the night sky lit up bright orange from all the fires and explosions war brings.
The 29-year-old father had to flee his home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, and fears it has been obliterated in airstrikes.
On Thursday night the area was hit by 450 Israeli missiles. Yousef says: “For half an hour it was a bright sky, orange, it was like early morning sun at 2am. It was hell, a nightmare.
“They attacked the north of Gaza, 450 airstrikes in 30 minutes.
“The bombing didn’t stop for one minute, huge explosions. They attacked every area, main streets, shops, almost everywhere. We were about 300 to 400 metres from the bombing.”
On Tuesday, Yousef, who is an advocacy officer for the Norwegian Refugee Council, had to leave his home with his three-year-old daughter and pregnant wife to seek refuge at his parents’ home due to the bombing.
He says: “At 6pm, an air drone hit the building. Then came an airstrike which landed on the apartment below.
“I had to flee right away because we expected a rocket next.
“My daughter was screaming, I had to convince her it was fireworks and we had to run away from the house.
“I couldn’t take anything. The next day, I returned for two minutes to try to get some clothes and medicine, but then they hit again.
“Around 30 airstrikes by war planes, it was a shocking experience, like a nightmare. You don’t know where to escape. Everyone is screaming.
“All we can do is move from place to another place and try to convince ourselves that this time it will be safe.
“I am wearing the same sandals, the same shorts, the same T-shirt. “This is my outfit for days.”
Since Tuesday, the family have
relocated four times and are currently at his father-in-law’s house.
“They attacked the house in front of my father-in-law’s by drone. It’s 20 metres away. All the people had to flee.
“We’re in one room at the back of the house. It’s crazy, I don’t know how to describe it to you.”
On the southern Gaza Strip in Rafah, Laila huddles with her family as the bombs start dropping.
She fears for her life and says “it’s just a matter of time” before one of them dies. She says: “Think of your worst case scenario and multiply it by 100.
“That is how bad this is. We were preparing for Eid, it’s the end of Ramadan and Eid celebrations have begun. All of a sudden this happens. “The last few days have been like hell. “When I hear names of people I know who are killed or injured, you think, if it happened to them it will happen to me.
“It can happen to anyone.”
‘Bombs didn’t stop.. 450 fell in half an hour’