Karim, a 20 -year -old trained nurse from the city of Gaza, records through his diary the horrible reality of the war. Until Israel’s recent mandate for his forced displacement, he lived in the ruins of his former home with his parents and brothers. He has already been displaced 13 times due to the war and survived an Israeli blow to Rafa. In the last month he kept a calendar for the Guardian.
August 17 2025
“After two years, I have lost all hope. I do not believe the news to end the war by Trump. My father tells me that we have to move to Deir al-Balah soon before we are forced to leave again. If there were others in our position, the UN would have intervened. But for us, nothing. Now they are talking about our mission to South Sudan – a country “crushed” by civil war, already displaced. We are 2 million, trapped in less than 20 square kilometers, just waiting to die late. And people are indifferent. OR [πρώην πρωθυπουργός του Ισραήλ] Golda Mair once said, “Maybe over time we can forgive the Arabs who kill our sons, but it will be more difficult for us to forgive them for forcing us to kill their sons.” That says it all. Sometimes, I think Israel has to be studied by psychologists – maybe then people will finally understand the madness we live in. “
18 August 2025
“I took a route to Deir al-Balah with a friend, looked like a bold act: cars modified to carry more people, trailers hanging like lifeboats. You are holding on to what you have, because otherwise you will fall on the street and get lost.
Near Al-Nabuli Square I saw a “Hizam Nari”, a fire ribbon in the sky. Fighter aircraft carried a line of explosions over the city of Gaza, one after the other, clouds of ash was raised and everything that existed was extinguished. I measured five, six rockets and then stopped because the measurement looked vain. I have to find refuge for my family, an apartment, a garage, any small space. My mind ” escapes ”, I forget things, I forget plans, the chaos steals them. All I feel is a tight, small panic and hollow hope that we will be here the next day. “
August 19 2025
“Yesterday I finally managed to find a garage – 1,500 Shekel, about £ 385 a month. This is the cheapest, because demand is huge, while houses and buildings are bombarded. The garage has almost no roof. The owner even suggested a small apartment for 2,500 sekel (644 euros), honestly, not even in Dubai. In wars and crises, people become more aggressive, more selfish, willing to gain from the misery of others. Perhaps this is “normal” or rather the expected behavior of someone who has experienced two years of forced displacement, famine, especially in the world’s biggest prison.
So, I started setting up my new “home” by cleaning, arranging, trying to make it habitable. I can’t allow myself a second to think of my old room before the genocide, the layer with springs, the gaming office, our air conditioner, our home … I can’t let nostalgia understand me. I keep moving. Forward, forward – never back. “
August 28 2025
“I’ve been without my parents for a week. Despite what my father initially said, they have the hope – or denial -, believing that negotiations between Qatarians, Americans, Egyptians and Israelis mean that the city of Gaza will not be evacuated. So they refuse to leave. Two years now people have been doing whatever they want, while we are drowning, and we are writing from the smallest, most obvious lies, the little ‘haystacks’ that keep us breathe. The harsh truth is that the Israelis never hid their goals: “We will destroy Gaza”. They did it. “We will reinstall you.” They did it. “We will cut food and water.” They did it. “We’ll get into Rafa.” All looks there. Joe Biden, he said no, did it anyway. What is it coming after? The city of Gaza, my home. It will be emptied, it will become a desert like Rafa. ‘I am stealing’ a few quiet days now, a brief, fragile peace I have won. “
9 September 2025
“My parents are at last with me. We turned the garage into home, rooms, a small private space. Of course, the walls are plastic canvas. I managed to connect for a while on the internet. This point has come: IDF issued a mandatory displacement order for the whole city of Gaza, including the western part. The world has no energy, no money, no desire to leave homes, many prefer to die rather than leave.
This afternoon our neighbor told us that the Israelis even bombed Qatar. My God. They no longer have limits. Qatar with the largest US military base in the Middle East is allegedly hit by a US ally force. I think it is clear what comes and what it means for the people of Gaza: Genocide to the last breath. They have been given a white check. “
September 15th 2025
“My mother’s birthday, another quiet celebration under inhumane conditions. Things have relaxed a little, but this is not the life we had to live in. On my phone I saw photos of her birthday in 2022: a homemade cake and my favorite New York cheesecake. I remember that I gave her George Orwell’s “1984”, we burned it for bread at the end of 2023, because we didn’t have gas or wood for baking. What would Orwell think about us now? I like to imagine he would forgive us. I wiped my tears secretly and continued. Deir al-Ballah is becoming more and more. The world is exhausted: it doesn’t want to die, but many feel they have already died.
I held my mother’s hand, kissed it and whispered “Happy Birthday”. It’s been sick for days. I wrote a letter to her and apologized for not having a single cake (which would cost about $ 70) or at least a little gift. “
September 21 2025
“Countries like the United Kingdom and Australia recognized Palestine as a state, – why now and for what purpose? Israel continues to bomb us, the genocide continues. But now we can officially die as a Palestinian people, we have a state. How beautiful.
After all this misery, so many countries that denied almost two years that the systematic destruction of a population was taking place in Gaza, suddenly speaking. Actors, singers and others are involved because it became “mainstream”. In the old days, the world used to say, “Oh no, I don’t know enough about the Middle East, it’s a very sensitive issue to comment.” Hypocrites. “
September 25th 2025
“The same harsh routine, day by day, people die of hunger, from weakness, from the rockets that do not stop. A man not far from us died recently. At first I thought it was the usual horror, a raid, a stray bullet. But no. It just collapsed. His heart stopped. I still can’t believe how used to his death, how quickly a life can disappear and leave only a hollow silence. I was distilled, as if I had stunned in this loss and suddenly I woke up.
My day is a survival map: to bring water, to find wood, to bake bread just filling the stomach. In the little time left, I’m looking for scholarships, a little hope, maybe the only way out of this prison. But they ask for English exams, they know that there are no examination centers here. Online exams? Impossible: There is no fixed internet, no valid passports to prove our identity. How can we prove who we are when people have destroyed our documents and connections?
I’m exhausted to the bone. “
Source :Skai
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
