"Shujayea once held our homes, stories and lives. Now it has been erased and with it a part of who we are. My neighbourhood in east Gaza, Shujayea, is gone! Reduced to rubble, with not a single stone left upon another. The streets that once echoed with the laughter of children, the calls of vendors, and the familiar rhythms of daily life now lie in silence, smothered by dust and destruction."
"A few days ago, my brother Mohammed went back to Shujayea to check on our family home. When he came back he told my father that nothing remained except for a few broken walls and scattered columns. A few hours later, we were shocked to learn that my father himself had braved extreme danger to see it with his own eyes. In a place where every step can mean death, he chose to walk through the ruins of our past."
"But our family's loss is not just this one house. My father's destroyed home is now added to my own burned apartment, my sister Nour's bombed apartment, my sister Heba's demolished home, and my sister Somaia's two apartments one reduced to rubble and the other burned. To this list are added my uncle Hassan's destroyed building, my uncle Ziad's building, my uncle Zahir's home, my aunt Umm Musab's apartment, my aunt Faten's apartment, and the completely destroyed homes of my aunts Sabah, Amal, and Mona."
Shujayea in east Gaza has been obliterated, reduced to rubble with not a single stone left upon another and streets silenced by dust and destruction. A brother returned to inspect the family home and reported only broken walls and scattered columns. The father later risked his life to walk through the ruins of the house built by grandfather and father, where family milestones took place. Multiple family residences were destroyed or burned, including the narrator's apartment, siblings' apartments, and numerous uncles' and aunts' homes. Countless relatives, friends, and neighbours also suffered obliterated homes and buried memories.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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