I’ve always imagined the day I would die in and the way I would leave this world by. Till the first day of January, things started to appear differently, and I became more cautious about what to imagine. The night the Israeli military mobilized its tanks, soldiers, weapons, dogs, and diapers to sweep Gaza was the beginning of immortal memories of smelling death everywhere. 24 hours had passed like 24 years. At one of Tal El Hawa buildings,the number one story of witnessing criminality took place. Between the rubbles of so many merely crushed houses, fate insisted that a six_floor building survive in order to face what was Inevitable. Lots of tanks stuffed with soldiers and their military equipment surrounded the building from three directions. On the fourth floor was an apartment crowded with an enough number of people to withdraw the oxygen of the only room they were trapped in -the living room. Tariq, one of the building’s dwellers, decided to decrease the congestion and go to stay in his apartment located in the first floor. He took along two of his friends who found no place to run to except for that bloody building! after few hours of “nothing” but waiting the unknown, the military began the fight against armless children, women, and men.
No window was allowed to be opened. Burning a candle was taboo as well. Soon, the whole apartment drowned in darkness, and here the soldiers seized their chance to break into the building. the first floor was obviously their first target. They readily bombed the apartment next to Tariq’s ,and left nothing to him and his company to wait for but their absolute demise. They knocked on the door ,even though they knew about the stranded guys ,but no one showed a reaction from inside the apartment. Immediately, they launched a projectile. The whole apartment was on fire ,and Tariq’s friends left life in front of his eyes. Tariq ,whose body was half burnt, could leave the apartment by a miracle . he crawled to the fourth floor where he had to wait for long trying to convince his neighbors that he was actually “Tariq” ,and that he hadn’t faced the same “honorable destiny” his friends had. Among the believers in God’s wide protection, the silence of the place was soon deafening. The 24 hours had passed , but had not taken away their impact.
huda33 