Prof. Dr. Said Abdelwahed: What Gaza is like in the middle of the night?

Its totally dark. More than 80% of the Gaza city is covered by utter darkness. One cannot see his finger in the dark! Meantime, outside, there are drones buzzing overhead, choppers roaming in the sky. Inside again, children are unwilling to go to bed despite their bed time! They are fearful of nightmares, bad dreams, bombing, explosions, and what not! The routine sounds of the air crafts has been going on for more than six days and nights. And when it suddenly disappears...

... BANG ...

continuous bangs! ... series of explosions. ... other horrible explosions. ... blasts ... flames in the distance. ... children jump up from their beds. Scared ... frightened. ... anxious ... they do not know what to do! They want to hide anywhere, but there is nowhere to go too? It sounds like the bang was under their mattresses. What to do again? Just nothing but wait! How can you convince your child to wait? And to wait for what? Next, one hears ambulances sirens and fire brigades. Thus, one comes back to himself to realize that he is in Gaza and he is operating a small generator to write this message to the world in the new year 2009.

Prof. Said Abdelwahed
Department of English
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Al-Azhar University of Gaza