Haniya, 84, recalls the day war shattered her life. Injured family members, displacement to a shelter, and separation from loved ones left her longing for her village.
She was at home with her sons and grandchildren, about twenty family members together, when a powerful explosion shook the ground beneath them. In an instant, dust filled the air, turning everything dark. Haniya tried to look for her children, but the dust was overwhelming. Her heart sank when she saw they had all been injured, with blood covering the ground around them. They were rushed to the hospital for treatment and later moved to a school that had been converted into a temporary shelter, where they spent difficult days, with sounds of explosions constantly around them.
“When the explosions started, it felt like the world turned to darkness. I reached out for my children, but the smoke swallowed us. Seeing them hurt tore my heart apart,” Haniya says. After a few days, the family was forced to separate. Some went to Beirut, while others fled to Syria. Left behind at the school, Haniya felt alone, sleeping on the ground in a strange and unfamiliar place.
She misses her home in the village—the small garden where she planted thyme and parsley, the chickens that once roamed the yard, and the goats she tended to each day. Even if her home is destroyed, she dreams of returning, to breathe in the scent of the southern soil she knows so well. She misses her neighbours, the women her age who would sit and chat with her, always ready to lend a hand.
“More than anything, I miss the small, familiar things—the simple life back home. Even if all that’s left is rubble, I want to sit there again, to feel connected to the land and life I knew so well.” Haniya says.
This story was made possible thanks to the support of HelpAge partner/network member Amel Association International, a non-sectarian Lebanese humanitarian NGO. Together with HelpAge, they are working to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance to older people in Gaza.