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No more father, no more house, no more school… in the ruins of Gaza, Ibrahim “just wants the war to stop”
No more father, no more house, no more school… in the ruins of Gaza, Ibrahim “just wants the war to stop”
(SPECIAL SUBJECT / FRANCE 2)
To tell from the inside the ravages of the war in Gaza, some of the last journalists still present there transmitted their images to “Special Envoy”. Everyone is extremely worried about the children, whose situation is catastrophic. Photographer Hatem Hani Rawagh was particularly touched by Ibrahim’s story, told in this extract.
“It was from here that they took my father, and my brother Misbah. And my sister was thrown further away by the blast.” It was March 9, 2024, at dinner time. Amidst the ruins of his old home, Ibrahim only remembers a ball of fire. The little boy’s face was burned by the explosion. His father, Abdallah, did not survive. According to his family, he had no ties to Hamas. Sick, he lived on odd jobs.
If Misbah, Ibrahim’s little brother, is miraculously unharmed, their sister Boussaïna received shrapnel in the back. Traumatized by the war, she already suffered from behavioral problems. Now she often starts screaming for no reason: “She calls her father screaming, and still believes him under the bombings,” explains his mother, who tries to salvage some clothes from the ruins.
“I can no longer read or write”
Ibrahim spotted toys under the rubble, but impossible to reach them. His books were there too, they are destroyed like everything else. “Currently, there is no school, no house. I can no longer read or write, regrets the young boy. The children become aggressive, they fight among themselves in the middle of the ruins. Ibrahim has only one wish: “Let the war stop”, to bring his family to the new house he wants to build. Theirs is one of 89,000 buildings destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombings between October 2023 and March 2024. According to the UN, 60% of schools and hospitals in the Gaza Strip were affected by Israeli bombings.
From Gaza where no foreign journalist can enter, it was Hatem Hani Rawagh, a photographer from the associative media Press House – Palestine who transmitted these images to “Special Envoy”. Ibrahim’s story particularly touched him. Like all the rare reporters or humanitarians still present on site, he wishes to alert people to the catastrophic situation of the children. The UN estimates that four months of war in Gaza have left more people dead than all the world’s wars in four years.
Excerpt from “Children in the hell of Gaza”, a broadcast report in “Special Envoy” on April 18, 2024.
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