12 days of violence and deaths. Children orphaned, families killed and displaced, people living as refugees in their own country, taking shelter in schools, sharing their beds, food and fear. All this is considered nothing but collateral damage. I quote my friend, “After being awake all night because of the sounds of bombing, at dawn, Israeli bullets started hitting ours’ and neighbor’s walls, forcing us to run from our houses.” My friend carried her daughter and her husband carried their son, started running for shelter. One of the neighbors who was carrying his son was directly hit, his son was killed but he, despite his injuries, refused to let go of his son’s body and kept moving with him in his arms. It could have been a scene of an action movie; only it was a true event of a massacre, an ongoing massacre. This is just one story of many more, happened and sadly still happening.

* This article is originally posted Lives Some Live. – This is a 51 day war account of the how daily lives during the third war on Gaza unfolded one day to the next for its devastated and grieving citizens. This is a heartbreaking nightmare. War is not just the numbers nor the political rhetoric it often masks itself in. In the end, it is about people coming to an abrupt end; and the continuum of life stabbed in the heart. In the end, it is about fear; constant fear, till cease fire is declared.