Airstrikes and Survivors: Eye Witness Account
May 18, 2021
Saif is one of our drivers for the Outreach Bus Programme. During the Pandemic, the Programme has been used to help get children that need kidney dialysis safely to the hospital and back home. Saif was looking forward to his Eid break when the bombardment started in Gaza on the 10th of May:
“I was happy to get a break, I sometimes get very tired at work seeing children that are suffering ill health. They are dealing with such pain, but they are still strong.
The bombing started the day I finished work. I am recently married and I live with my family, and we have 7 children in my family. Thinking of losing them is too much for me, and it has even made me think whether we should have our own children in Gaza and make them face all of this!
The first night we all stayed together on the ground floor. The doors were shaking, we tried to calm the children by saying it was fireworks. Every night since we all think will this be the night? Will this be our last?”
Saif returned to work to help children get to hospital for their treatments. With Covid 19 still raging in Gaza, the children need safe transport and their treatment is vital. The roads are badly damaged and a journey that usually takes ten minutes now took him an hour.
“After I left the patients at Al Shifa Hospital, I drove around the area to see what it was like. So many collapsed buildings, so much rubble. I got to Al Wehda Street and people were still being searched for in the rubble. I was approached by the rescue crew and asked to use the bus to get an injured man to the hospital as the ambulances were all full! He was alive, I couldn’t believe it! All he was saying was ‘ya rab’.
I am still shocked when I think that people may still be under the rubble. I am glad I was there and I was able to help!”