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We Are Not Numbers
Abdallah Nasrallah
“As people were running, I stood still at the window, unable to move a muscle — not because I wanted to keep standing by the window, which was the worst place to be during a bombing, but because my body felt paralyzed, refusing to budge.”
“I started running toward the wall in the middle of our home. This is what we Gazans consider to be as safe as we can get — an internal wall away from the windows. The one in our apartment separated the kitchen from the living room, and we were used to hiding next to it during previous wars. But the wall wasn’t there anymore, as my mother had remodeled the house a month earlier. In our confusion and panic, we still ran to hide near the wall that wasn’t there anymore. When we realized what we were doing, we started laughing hysterically. We tried to hide the fear and trauma fighting to escape our eyes in the shape of tears, but I don’t know if we managed it.”
Read full story
Read about 13 year old Mohammed’s heroic battle against kidney failure and other illnesses over the last 10 yearsRead full story by Hossam Wail Abo-Shammallah
Tour the historical sites in Gaza city with members of We Are Not Numbers.
Meet Abo Hanfi A-Sawwaf, Abu-Zuhair, Om-Anwar Al-Kassab; and see Omary Mosque, Al-Thahab (Gold) Market, Al-Alami’s house, and Al-Hasary herb’s shop.
Watch the video here
The woman standing behind: “At home, she is the woman sitting behind a table rolling huge quantities of grape or cabbage leaves, stuffing them with half-cooked rice mixed with homemade tomato sauce and a little meat, to add flavor, in the kitchen that all her daughters-in-law share with her. The common kitchen embraced an atmosphere of mutual love and respect. She takes the pots, sets them on the blazing fire that she lights in the middle of the square of sand. Gathering the whole family in the square, she cooks beziena, boiled rice with tasty dough balls. When I would visit, she’d be standing behind the gas stove, brewing tea in her favored metal kettle.”
Read full story by Fedaa Alsoufi
Read full story by Roba Alotul
My Christopher Robin: “That’s how I met her, Zainab, my best friend and greatest companion. She gave me the sweetest hug when we met face to face for the first time….We talked every day and started seeing how we have much in common. We shared happiness and sadness, failure and success, the good and the bad, a lot of songs and too much food. She was always and still is here for me, and I’m the same for her. We push each other to achieve more. We pick outfits together. We talk about everything and nothing at the same time.”Read full story by Afaf Alnajjar
I miss my father, I miss my friends: “We were a group of ten friends or, to be more accurate, ten brothers, a small gang. We loved to call ourselves “the kiddos,” a phrase we created to describe our unique relationship. Every one of us had something that made him special, and we each played our role in our group….But, I miss the kiddos who have left so much. I miss our gatherings till dawn. I miss dropping by their homes anytime, our long walk to the sea, our discussions and arguments and our special friendships. When I’m with the kiddos, I can be the real Abdallah, with his ups and downs, who talks about anything without feeling judged or misunderstood. The hideous can be beautiful with them.”Read full story by Abdallah Ayamn Hasaneen