FAITH

Taraweeh in scrubs

Reaching the hospital the first day at 8 pm, we dropped our bags and joined the ongoing taraweeh jamat led by medical staff in scrubs. Each rakah kept short with ayats from different parts of the Qur’an from memory on the topic of patience, on steadfastness. The fiqh and knowledge of each reciter was perfection, subhanAllah.

Entertainment in Gaza

In Rafah there is a big tent, “the Qu’ran tent”, where kids read, memorize and review the Qur'an in daytime. You hear the Qur’an there all the time! I didn’t hear any music. I didn’t hear singing at all for the ten days I was there. If anyone feels down and they need entertainment, it is the Qur’an.

The dua’a made at tahajjud by the young and old to Allah was, “Ya Allah give us patience till your Victory comes, and your victory will come.”

TESTS

Public works

There is no public infrastructure to remove garbage or debris from bombings. This is of course pre-planned by the aggressors to make the Gaza strip uninhabitable so the people leave of their own volition.  By all estimates it would take at least five years to remove the debris and re-build Gaza to what is was, even if the bombings were to stop now.  

Children’s education in Gaza

The schools are destroyed and people are sheltering in the handful of remaining ones. I was told by Gazan’s that the world lived through Covid and children didn’t go to school and our children are again doing the same. Yet, among every cluster of tents, one tent is reserved for the kids to read and memorize the Qur’an. If there are any school teachers uninjured, they teach them some school curriculum.

The aggressors use technology that can track every living blood moving on the strip. They know when someone goes up or down the stairs. They know who is alive or dead. The women sleep in their hijabs so if they are killed their bodies remain covered. SubhanAllah

AWARENESS

Who to talk to about Gaza?

Talk to your co-workers. I showed my colleague physician the pictures and videos of the rudimentary C-sections without anesthetics/medication. The colleague was in tears!

Talk to your elected representatives. Put pressure on them. Even if nothing happens! At least in front of Allah I can say, “Oh Allah, I tried. I didn’t say it was not my cause!

Don’t become numb! Don’t say it is going on for too long! Don’t say it’s not me! NO! It is Us! People of Gaza, they are our brothers and sisters. One day it could be you or me. May Allah protect us. There is no guarantee in this world. 

The humans of Gaza said, “Talk about what is happening! Don’t forget us. Talk about us! Whatever you can do! Post what you can!”

They say, “Allah will give us victory. We just don’t know when. In the meantime, talk about it”. They love that we post about them. They love what we post.

HOSPITAL SITUATION

Since October 7 there has been no electricity in that part of the world. The hospitals in Gaza barely operate on generators.

Talk to your co-workers. I showed my colleague physician the pictures and videos of the C-section in the only maternity hospital in the middle of Gaza without anesthetics and rudimentary instruments. The colleague was in tears! For example, the sterile cover for the surgery is cut in half so they can use it for 2 patients instead of one.

The first physician I saw was a young male physician. I asked him, what do you feel? He told me, “We are in survival mode; we don’t have the time to cry for the people we have lost.

 This is what we do when we are in pain

I am hearing a young girl crying in pain. No medicine, no painkillers. The person next to her was reading the Qur'an to her, “Wahid illah”. Say, “La ilaha illallah (There is no god but God).”

That is what we say and do when we are in pain. Wahid illah! The real Muslim’s there, this is what they do and say.

Gaza Trip - The first physician

The first physician I saw was a young male physician. I asked him, “What do you feel?” 

He told me, “We are in survival mode; we don’t have the time to cry for the people we have lost”.

Every makeshift bed in makeshift tents in the hospital courtyard is filled to capacity with dismembered young men and young children. They target the legs of the young civilian men, horrific cruelty, subhanAllah.

The little bullets sprayed by drones on the little kids’ legs. If this cruelty isn’t a sign of genocide then I don’t know what is.

The drone sounds are constant companions during the day and night. I lived with it for 9 days, non-stop. Some days it was so close. When you don’t hear this noise, it is even scarier as it usually means an imminent bombing.

No hospital staff has gone and slept in their home since October. In Ramadan they may go every two weeks for two hours, break their fast and come back. Only the hospitals have some water but not enough for showers.