Guest Blog: By Maysa Gayyusi-Palestine Integral Committee-Ramallah

“I am burning inside and Gaza is burning outside”

Ula, my friend in Gaza, is now a terrified mother of three, hiding at her parent’s house and hovering over her children to protect them from harm. When I talked to her two days ago, her voice was trembling from shock and disbelief of what was happening in her hometown. With things going out of hand in Gaza, she found no one around to complain to, so she called me to share her despair and an almost primal fear for her kid’s life. For the first time since I have known Ula, she sounded hysterical and confused. “Maysa, I really don’t know what to do or where to go… When I cry I raise my eyes to the sky, it’s the only place where I can look and see no death or blood.” She said sobbingly on the phone. “ brothers are killing their brothers, Muslims are killing Muslims...in the name of what??”

As a Palestinian I am feeling angry and appalled by what is happening in Gaza. This fighting and so-called “coup d’etat” is a self-inflicted set back to our Palestinian cause. Regardless of any strategic trap or conspiracy staged by any superpower or regional power. We took the bait...

“My children are no longer the same” continued Ula, “My seven year old asked me, Mommy, are you Fatah or Hamas. I turned my face to hide the tears. I am raising my children to become good Palestinians, engineers, entrepreneurs, physicist…and the aggression is raising them to become fighters and hostile.” She continued saying “Maysa, I am confused, my husband is unemployed. And we have a family to support. they are going to cut the supplies of fuel and water. It is going to be the end of the world for me and my children”

A sense of helplessness came over me as I was listening to her words, and my heart was bleeding. Sitting in Jerusalem I really was not able to even comfort her terrified emotions. I just listened.
Yesterday, Ula and her family were forced out of their house and had to flee to her parents’ house in the midst of fighting. This was not an option for them due to the fact that her house is near the president’s compound. “we were forced by a gun to my husband’s head to leave the house; I never imagined that one day I will be kicked out of my house by another Palestinian.”.

Before she hang up the phone she whispered to me “Maysa, I am burning inside and Gaza is Burning outside”

Maysa Gayyusi
UNRWA Advisor and a Freelance writer for Palestine Times.

to contact Maysa: M.GAYYUSI@unrwa.org