In Gaza, each neighborhood carries traits that foster pleasure and unity amongst its residents, every one boasting its personal distinctive qualities, cherished and recognized by all. One such neighborhood is Shujaiya, which implies “braveness” in Arabic. It’s a place the place the persons are celebrated for his or her power, resilience, endurance and an unwavering love for his or her land. This love runs so deep that they’d endure something, even dwelling with nothing however a tent for shelter, to stay on their land.
Now, nevertheless, the Israeli navy is driving the residents of Shujaiya off their beloved land by means of a floor invasion. On April 4, weeks after breaking the ceasefire, Israel started attacking Shujaiya, displacing its residents, destroying the neighborhood, and getting ready to annex it as a so-called “secure zone” below its full management – simply as Israel did with Rafah.
I first stumbled on a bunch of people that had been fleeing the bottom invasion earlier this month as I trudged by means of the center of the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza, which is simply three kilometers (lower than two miles) away from Shujaiya.
I used to be in Al-Rimal desperately trying to find a spot with web entry from which to take my college exams, when the streets had been instantly overwhelmed with chaos. The bombardment wasn’t occurring in Al-Rimal, however I might inform it was shut by. I might hear the deafening sound of tank shells and the crack of tank gunfire.
The air was thick with the frantic cries of the aged and the heart-wrenching wails of youngsters. I had no thought what was unfolding round me, however an amazing sense of dread consumed me.
It was as if I had been caught in a battle, not only for survival, however for a dream I had fought so onerous to maintain alive: my commencement from college. But, with each step I took, I felt dying’s shadow looming nearer, threatening to tear that dream from my grasp. The load of the unknown pressed down on me as I moved by means of the streets. I apprehensive that, with every step, I used to be nearer to shedding all the things — my training, my household. The worry felt suffocating, and all I might suppose was, “How for much longer can I maintain combating earlier than it’s all taken away?”
For a second, curiosity overtook me. Who had been these individuals who had instantly flooded into the streets of Al-Rimal, and the place had been they fleeing from? In that instantaneous, I spotted that my training not mattered — this was a second of life or dying.
The evening was vicious, the bombardment relentless. Listening to the tank fireplace, I knew this was no “strange “assault. I used to be positive I used to be listening to tanks concentrating on fleeing civilians, and that might solely imply one factor: a floor invasion had begun.
At that second I didn’t but know that the bottom invasion was in Shujaiya. However as I walked by means of the chaos, I got here throughout a bunch of displaced individuals, their faces painted with worry and sorrow. Amongst them, I noticed a girl, not less than 60 years previous, crying uncontrollably. Her voice rang out in agony, “They dragged us out at evening… they pressured us out.”
I approached the girl — who recognized herself as Om Ali Abu Sabta — and requested what had occurred. She instructed me by means of her tears, “They stormed in at evening. We had no alternative however to flee towards Al-Rimal. However the place had been we imagined to go? There isn’t a shelter for us. Even the colleges within the space are overcrowded, stuffed with individuals because the conflict started. Many of the properties have been destroyed.”
I couldn’t convey myself to say something to her; I might solely stare into her eyes, making an attempt to convey how deeply I understood what she was feeling. Listening to her story, my very own tragedy resurfaced in my thoughts. Like her, I too have confronted displacement — firstly of the conflict, my house in Tal al-Hawa, a neighborhood within the northern a part of Gaza, was destroyed by the Israeli navy, and I needed to flee from there to the neighborhood adjoining to it, Al-Rimal.
As I walked, I noticed one other displaced household establishing a tent on Palestine Avenue in Al-Rimal. I by no means imagined that the individuals of my metropolis, as soon as a logo of dignity, can be pressured to sleep on the streets.
Dealing with this struggling as I looked for web entry to take my college examination felt like one other check: a check of endurance on this merciless life. How lengthy can I bear these tragedies, and endure all that we’re going by means of?
However we’ve lengthy recognized the grim patterns of occupation: earlier than each floor invasion, we’ve come to anticipate the navy to unleash a wave of massacres to empty the neighborhoods by pressure.
On April 3, 2025, the evening earlier than its floor invasion in Shujaiya, the Israeli navy launched an airstrike on Dar Al-Arqam College within the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza, which had been sheltering beforehand displaced residents of Shujaiya.
The consequence was a horrific bloodbath that left an indelible mark on all who witnessed it. The our bodies of killed Palestinians had been flung into the air in a scene that felt extra like a nightmare than actuality. Once I watched the video recorded by journalists, an amazing worry consumed me. I might hardly consider my eyes because the our bodies soared into the sky. The consequence was devastating: 31 individuals had been killed and 100 had been wounded. After committing this atrocity, the Israeli navy issued an order for the whole evacuation of the college, then leveled it to the bottom with a full-scale bombardment.
I do know the horrors of a floor invasion all too properly. Simply eight months in the past, I used to be trapped with my household within the Rimal neighborhood, surrounded by the Israeli military, unable to open a window with out risking our lives. The second the Israeli navy knew we had been there; dying would be sure. Essentially the most terrifying moments got here the day earlier than they stormed in — when the relentless roar of tank shells tore by means of the air for limitless hours.
Now it’s the residents of Shujaiya who’re enduring a floor invasion, reliving as soon as once more the identical horrors they’ve confronted previously.
Shujaiya is among the neighborhoods that has suffered probably the most from the occupation through the years. Throughout the 2014 conflict, it endured relentless and intense artillery bombardment, and it was the one neighborhood to expertise a large-scale floor assault. That assault pressured round 100,000 individuals to flee to varied elements of Gaza, the place they endured unimaginable hardships. The assault resulted in a horrific bloodbath, claiming the lives of at least 67 people in Shujaiya in a single day, and leaving many others wounded. Among the many victims had been quite a few youngsters and girls, making it one of many bloodiest chapters of the conflict — not less than, earlier than the tragedy that started in 2023.
And now individuals from Shujaiya are dealing with a floor invasion and large displacement as soon as once more.
The Gaza Strip spans simply 365 sq. kilometers. With each neighborhood devoured or destroyed, the noose tightens across the necks of greater than 2 million individuals with out water, meals, shelter, or the power to breathe freely… solely a protracted, gradual wait on the sting of an abyss.
I maintain making an attempt to persuade myself that in the future, my metropolis will rise once more, extra lovely than it ever was. I cling to that hope like a lifeline. However slowly, that hope is slipping by means of my fingers, and I’m beginning to consider that seeing Gaza complete once more may be an not possible dream. I want that all the things I’m dwelling by means of proper now had been only a nightmare I might get up from. Will the world get up with us?
Whether or not it does or not, we nonetheless rise every day — not as a result of we’re fearless, however as a result of braveness is selecting to endure, time and again. We’re not simply survivors. We dwell, we love, we resist. Even when left with nothing however mud and damaged goals, we maintain on.
That’s shujaiya. That’s braveness.
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