Maysun Visual Journalist & Storyteller

Gaza under fire.

Gaza Strip. 2014. I crossed the Erez crossing in the hope that this time, the war in Gaza might be different to previous ones. That, this time, it would be a surgical operation in which civilian casualties could be minimized so that the population of Gaza, already exhausted by the long blockade that slowly chokes the region proves not so terribly affected as before.

But what I've found was an indiscriminate and unprecedented attack against civilians. Israeli Army air strikes and shell tirelessly throughout the city, destroying buildings, hospitals, neighborhoods reducing bodies, lives and feelings to ashes. The saddest feeling is that this seemed to be a "children war". Day after day hospitals, the ones still standing and that had not been bombed, were filled with women and children with lost stare and terrified expression. Morgues, crowded, hectic kept swallowing and spiting dead. Cemeteries filled their holes with too small coffins.

Our cameras witnessed more than 2143 dead, including at least 480 children and more than the 11500 wounded, so far, that this disproportionate war between unequal sides left, in which civilians lost their homes, their lives, unable to flee anywhere, as if they were mices in a trap.

The hope of a lasting ceasefire faded at times, especially at sunset, when the bombing and the sound of drones and planes flying over our heads began to thunder so deafening. I asked again and again if they hoped that the war would end soon. Answer - Inhsallah kheir! - (We wish today!) - We just want to live in peace.