Dr. EYAD AL SERRAJ Counterpunch
Monday, Dec 29, 2008
The bombing went on for about 10 minutes. It was like an
earthquake on top of your head. The windows were shaking and
squeaking. My 10-year-old was terrified, he was jumping from
one place to another trying to hide. I held him tight to my
chest and tried to give him some security and reassure him.
My 12-year-old was panicking and began laughing hysterically,
it's not normal. I held her hand and calmed her and told her
she would be safe. My wife was panicking. She was running
around the apartment looking for somewhere to hide.
We live on the ground floor so we headed to the basement.
Not very far from our home is the headquarters of the police
and there was a massive bomb. The chief of police was killed.
Two streets away there was another bomb and more people were
killed. The office of the president is about one kilometre
from our house and it was also bombed.
We went downstairs to the basement and tried to hide ourselves
from the shelling. The child of one of our relatives, who
lives in our building, finally came home from school. We hadn't
been able to find her. All the phone connections were jammed.
She came home and she was in a very serious state of shock.
She was pale and trembling and she was describing dead bodies
in the streets. On her way home she passed Hamas people in
uniform and they were dead.
I had been very apprehensive when I woke up this morning.
I had some bread, some cheese and a glass of tea. Like all
the people in Gaza I felt that something was going on and
something very serious. When Israel allowed the delivery of
food and fuel [when it ended the blockade of Gaza yesterday]
I said to myself and my friends that Israel is really planning
a massive strike. They don't want to be blamed for starving
the people.
I was sitting in the living room with my family trying to
figure out what to do today for lunch, it's our main meal.
What to cook and how to cook, whether we have enough to eat.
There was no rice so I wanted to have lentil soup and my wife
said "No, there's no lentils in the market." I said
"What else can we do?" She said "I bought some
cans of food." We were discussing this when suddenly
the whole thing erupted. Suddenly there was a big explosion.
Right now I feel very anxious about what's going to happen.
I'm worried about how many more people are going to die.
Dr Eyad Al Serraj is a practising psychologist in Gaza City.