This was posted by Malek El Shinbary on Facebook, in Arabic:
On the way from Gaza to Khan Yunis, a little girl named Sama sat next to me.
She was sitting in her mother's lap, pointing her little hand toward the window. I understood that she wanted to see the sea, so I opened the window and sat her on my lap.
She smiled as if she remembered that life had another form.
I said to her with a smile:
βI swear, I didn't notice you signaling me. Why didn't you call me, little one?β
Her mother said:
βShe used to talk a lot, but after what happened two years ago, she stopped talking and only uses sign language.β
I paused for a moment, feeling an old desire I hate and cannot suppress: the desire to ask questions.
So I asked, realizing that I was committing the sin of curiosity once again.
On December 7, 2023, they were trapped in the Muscat School on Yafa Street, 300 civilians waiting to be βevacuated.β The soldiers ordered the men to come out first, tricked them, and executed four of them in front of their wives and children. Sama's father was one of them.
Half an hour later, her older sister came out to try to pull his body away, but they shot her. She bled for nine hours on the ground and, by God's grace, survived.
The occupation army ordered the women to flee to the west of the city after arresting the rest of the men, the first of whom was her older brother. On the way, her mother discovered that her daughter was not with them. That moment alone is enough to break a soul forever.
For three days, she returned to the school, which had been turned into a military barracks, begging the soldiers to let her search. On the third day, she was allowed to enter.
She entered the area, searching among the rubble of houses and charred walls, among torn small bags, among the sounds that had died down, until she found her sitting under a wall, in dirty clothes, staring into nothingness for three days without food or water.
That child was Sama. Since that day, she has not uttered a single word, she has not cried, she has not screamed, she has not spoken, she only gestures to ask for things, tapping her plate to eat and her cup to drink.
I looked at Sama laughing at the sea, I wanted to say something, anything, but to no avail, just hearing the story made me speechless Sama.
How do you console a child who has been through all this, lost her voice, her father, her sister injured, and her childhood?
I curse my curiosity, I curse this filthy world that smiles in the faces of murderers.
The world that decorates the screens by talking about "peace".
This annihilation will not end, and it will not come out of us, even if the whole earth blossoms as an apology for the sky.
Original:
Malek El Shinbary
في الطريق من غزة إلى خاني&#...
