Nasser's blog

Nasser: "The war affected me. My grandparents and parents always told me about wars but I did not believe that it would be that bad. Now I understand. I learned to be patient and tolerant. I learned not to complain especially because sometimes we do not have too many choices. I learned how to make use of my time when I have nothing to do.

"The younger generation must have dreams, but many of their dreams are changed. They are aware of other things that children in other areas of the world would not think of.

"I don't know how [to convince young people that will still need to live in peace]. I might tell them that at the end of the day we are all the same. We are human beings and that we all need to live in peace. But honestly at this moment, I don’t really believe in this. The chances for peace dropped 50% in my opinion. This attack has taken us back to before 1994.

"What happened proved that Israel did not differentiate between civilians and fighters. For Israel we are all the same, we are all Palestinian. Hence, most of those killed were civilians. Therefore, we must always remember our common goal as Palestinians."

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Nasser: "My parents are back home. The house is clean. We replaced the broken windows with plastic sheets. Parts of the house are burnt so we will have to fix this somehow. We still sleep in two safe rooms just in case something happens, but we can go out and work.

"I saw the Gaza Strip being destroyed, and when I worked with the company that makes documentaries I felt I had a huge responsibility. I was not doing a mere job. My responsibility was to show the world what happened. I realized that life does not stop; people do not die. Life is not about a house that was damaged. It is beyond all these materialistic things. The war showed the hatred and the spite that both sides feel. The chances for peace are fewer."

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Nasser: "We started to see all the damage and I realized that there are people suffering more than I do. Those who live close by the border had to leave their homes, many of them died as well.

"The ceasefire is good for civilians, but I hope it lasts for a long period. It's very important that we do not lose more people.

"The reaction of the authorities in Gaza must be positive after all what has happened and all those killed. The siege must end; the pre-war conditions must change."

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Nasser: "The last two days before the ceasefire were very difficult. The Israeli soldiers were about 800 kilometers away from my home. The sound of bombing was so loud, we could not go out of our homes. Now it's quiet, and after going out, we are seeing the destruction."

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Nasser: The situation is better today. I could sleep from 1-7 a.m. There were some bombings this morning and that is what actually woke me up.

"As a group, Global Youth Connection leaders must meet and do something after this war. Before the war we were working on water pollution in Gaza, but now this is irrelevant after all what has happened, especially that there is no infrastructure left in Gaza.

"Just like any other country, Gaza is part of this world, and people should care about what is going on in Gaza. There has been a siege for a year and a half, and no one said anything, but after the war people protested and started to act. We ask them to keep supporting the civilians in Gaza."

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Nasser: "Last night there was a lot of bombing, but it is quieter during the day. All the trees in our garden were burnt yesterday. I just hope that nothing else happens. People in Gaza do not believe that there is democracy in the world because of all what is happening to us, everyone is wondering why isn't all this stopped if there is democracy. People are desperate; they do not care about anything anymore.

"I have been working for the past two days. I work for a company that makes documentaries; so I do the translation and some management tasks in the office.

"We used to walk around in Gaza and notice all the nice places there, but now every 50 meters there are damaged buildings and houses. The Legislative Council used to be a beautiful building but now it's all black, many institutes and buildings are burnt. Even the buildings in the area by the sea were bombarded ... And at night we cannot walk in the streets ..."

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Nasser: "Tonight, my brother and I spent the night at our home; we were alone in the safest room. At 2 a.m. the shelling started. But at one in the afternoon, the attacks were halted so we went out to check on people and my sister went to get bread; she stood in line for an hour and a half. I miss everything, I miss going out with my friends. Today, I went out and everything was damaged and broken."

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Nasser: "We were staying at my aunt's house when the bombing started. We couldn't sleep because it started at 11 p.m. and continued until 9 a.m. Now, we can't go out at all because the bombardment is so random. We are very tired of all of this. Every morning we pray to God that this war will end."

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