“Here’s another strike…Oh, my God!” Anas Hamra, 23, exclaims over Skype from his home in the Gaza Strip. “While I’m talking to you I’m watching the strikes light up the sky.”
In an interview intermittently interrupted by power cuts and Israeli bombings, Anas shares what life has been like since Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip began on July 7. “As a media producer, I have my own business,” he explains. “I have contracts for filmmaking and covering events in Gaza. On July 7, we were supposed to be covering a celebratory event for youth launching their own startups in Gaza. I heard several blasts near where I was living in western Gaza. Everything was postponed.”
Since then, life has been turned upside down for Anas. “Since July 7, we haven’t been able to leave the house,” he says. “No one in my family has left. You move and you are a potential target, whether from the air or the sea. Friends of mine who are journalists had their hired car, a taxi with ‘TV’ clearly marked on it, hit by a missile strike four days ago. A media agency was hit three times yesterday. Even a donkey was hit by an airstrike today.”
Anas lives near where the four Bakr boys were killed while playing soccer on the beach. “I heard the strike and then I saw a crowd of people trying to aid the four children,” he says. “This is what everyday life has been like here in Gaza for the past 12 days.”
“Life is now about fear and staying together with your family,” Anas explains. “All the time in the US or Israeli news, they say they don’t hit civilians. But in the past twelve days, almost all of the deaths have been civilians. Every time we hear a blast or shelling from the sea we can’t do anything except stay in one room. There is no electricity, no internet connection most of the time. We haven’t slept at night at all. The intense airstrikes and aggression are always after midnight.”
“I don’t know how this has happened,” Anas says with exasperation. “Things are getting worse and worse each day. We haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just Israeli aggression. All what we’re seeking is equality and justice. No more, no less.”