Testimonies

Muhammad Sukar, 61

My wife and I live in al-Maghraqeh, in the central Gaza Strip, near the place that once was the Netzarim settlement. We have a one-story house made of asbestos.

On Saturday, 27 December 2008, when the bombing in Gaza began, my daughter and her two small children fled their house in Gaza City and came to live with us. That same day, the Israeli planes also bombed agricultural areas near our house. During the bombing, the house shook, and I felt it was going to collapse on our heads.

Usually, we buy food in Gaza City, but we couldn't get there because of the bombing and had to do with what we had at home. Most of our meals were rice, which my wife cooked on our kerosene stove, and we drank tea with za'atar to kill the hunger. Since the bombing began, a week ago, there has been no supply whatsoever of electricity and water.

Yesterday [4 January], around 3:00 P.M., Israel began to shell our area. One of the shells hit the house of the neighbors, the Basal family, and I saw the smoke coming from their house. Other shells fell near our house, and fires started. Some neighbors and I put out the fires with sand because we didn't have water. Meanwhile, the army continued the intensive firing and bombing. Then soldiers began to fire massive automatic gunfire around the house.

I couldn't stand it any longer. I was afraid we'd get killed. I went into the house, took a few blankets and left with the family. We only took a few things. Because we rushed, I forgot to take my cell phone and ID card. My daughter also didn't manage to take her cell phone and things for her small children. We got into my car and fled from there. Lots of others from the area also fled. We drove to the Nuseirat refugee camp, about five kilometers south of where the Netzarim settlement was.

All our relatives live in Gaza City and we don't have relatives in Nuseirat, so we went to stay in a classroom in the UNRWA school. We've been there since. We don't have electricity or enough blankets, and it's very cold. We don't have cooking utensils. Whoever has money buys prepared food for his family. Most of the residents fled from their homes, leaving all their property and money in the house.

We are now in the classroom, and we have nothing. We don't know what the army did to our houses, whether they were destroyed or not. We are very tense, and the living conditions are very harsh, especially for the small children, who have trouble coping with the cold and with being hungry.

Testimony of Muhammad 'Atiya Muhammad Sukar, 61, married with nine children, unemployed, resident of al-Maghraqeh, the central Gaza Strip, The testimony was given to Khaled 'Azayzeh at the Nuseirat refugee camp on 5 January 2009