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Third year civil engineering student at Gaza University, Mohammad Shamali, tries to remember what happened moments before he was found under the wreckage.
“I was running from one place to another with my family looking for a safe place, when we finally took shelter in my aunt’s house. My mum and aunt were preparing the “iftar” (the main Ramadan meal) a few minutes before sunset when I heard women, children, and men screaming."Mohammad remembers the screams he heard just before he saw the ceiling falling down on top of him. "For a second, I remembered the first lesson in civil engineering college where we were taught that ceilings should not fall down. But in Gaza, a place where nothing makes sense and where you start to doubt everything you have been taught, ceilings falling down easily and can end your life and the lives of your loved ones in seconds,” says the 21-year-old from the Shi’jaiya neighbourhood.
The Shi’jaiya neighborhood in Gaza is an area that had already been subjected to intense bombardment. The incident that Mohammad speaks of took place on 20th of July 2014 when a marketplace was bombed during a supposed humanitarian ceasefire, which resulted in the death of tens of civilians. Mohammad wasn't aware that he spent a full day under the wreckage as ambulances were not able to reach the area due to heavy attacks.
Finally some locals decided to take the risk and look for survivors. Mohammad was counted with the dead bodies at first before he showed signs of life at the Shefaa Hospital. “I was told that I spent ten days in the Shefaa Hospital unconscious before the hospital was hit by Israeli airstrikes. After that I was transferred to Makased Hospital in Jerusalem with other severely wounded cases. Medics are not sure if I will walk again and I cannot feel my legs. I know nothing about the fate of my family, no news from Gaza yet. My body is here in Jerusalem, but my soul is still there in Gaza,” says Mohammad.
