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Gaza: When we hide fear

Being a journalist married to a paramedic in the Gaza strip.

Jerusalem24Hala Al- Zuhairy – Rawan Alqatri ;  a married journalist to the paramedic, Osama Samoor, with 3 children, said to Jerusalem24 that she overcame the effects of 2014 aggression with psychotherapy sessions: ” the war was long and tough, and covering its details wasn’t easy ”

In Gaza, where luxury is an “absolute siege” between wars!

Rawan found herself forced to carry the burdens of the new aggression in 2021. In which her concerns are divided between her absent husband due to his work and her job as a journalist and her 3 kids with a fourth baby inside her guts.

Omar and his fortified house.

Rawan explains how she lost her ability to sleep since the beginning of the aggression. She wished she could take her children to every place she has to go to. “The bombing was everywhere and fear was everywhere”. she said.

Her youngest kid “3 years and half” Omar, was panicked and terrified because of the constant bombing and the sound of the rockets. He decided to build a fort out of the living room’s seat pillows in the house and surrounded himself with it saying he will not come out unless the war stops.

Rawan says that her kid slept, ate and spent all his time in this imaginary fort, which gave him the feeling that the rockets will not reach him.

Yet, Omar wasn’t feeling safe and sound unless he calls his dad on the phone or having him back home and making sure they are fine.

Rawan succeeded once in taking him out of his fort. Only under the condition of making him sleep next to one of his sisters. They all gathered in a night that witnessed a fierce bombing where one of the rockets hit a nearby area and made their house shake. And because he was so scared, he threw himself to his mother’s chest while holding her tightly until dawn.

Fear made her lose Yousef.

The Mother is able to hide her fear from her children. Yet, the price was the loss of her expected baby “Yousef”.

As soon as the bombing and the fear stopped, I started having severe pains in my stomach and started bleeding. And when I went to the hospital, it turned out that I have lost the baby.

As soon as Rawan left the examination room, she burst in crying meanwhile, her husband was talking to the doctor about different topics such as the protests in the west bank and the latest updates in Jerusalem.

“Why don’t you say anything? We just lost our child” said Rawan surprisingly to her husband. For him to answer “thank God we’re still safe”.

And when the war finished, Osama entered in a state of silence that lasted for 3 days.

It is reported that 2014 aggression caused in 700 cases of miscarriage due to the medical and psychological conditions of pregnant women during the aggression. Whereas, no such details were issued about 2021 aggression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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