Editor’s Note: Najla Drooby is a McLean resident who has written for the Connection before. Her former co-worker, Khaled, worked for her as a software engineer in Abu Dhabi when she was an IT project manager, building a cadastre system for the UAE. He has called her several times in the past year asking if she knows a way to get out of Gaza. Khaled is stuck in Gaza with his little children of 4 and 6, and his terrified family. Full names have been omitted to protect him from reprisals. He wrote this letter to Najla to describe the continued bombing, his fear that he will not survive, and his utter disbelief at the lack of international response.
Letter from Gaza
The author of this “Letter from Gaza” walked around his bombed neighborhood and took video on Nov. 10, 2023.Hi Najla, alive here. I wrote this during the blackout. See if it’s any good:
[Internal dialog]
“Open your eyes Khaled, open your eyes, it’s just another nightmare.”
Khaled: Have I gone mad? My eyes are wide open, I am well awake, this is reality.
Mind: but this is also how it feels when you are having a bad dream, it feels so real, yet the sigh when you open your eyes, and the racing heartbeats, realizing that it was just a bad dream, remember the feeling? Let’s try again: “Open your eyes.”
Khaled: I am trying.
Mind: This can’t be real. Look at your kids, they are running for their lives, the building next to you will be bombarded. Look at their faces, they were frightened before; this is something else, Khaled, there is no coming back from this moment, for them and for you. It’s a turning point. Let’s try again “Open your eyes”
Khaled: I am awake.
Mind: You can’t be. Look at your mother. She aged 10 years in one day. Look at your wife. She is silent, in complete shock. You have been to wars before, they were frightened before, but this is something else. You know better than this, the sound of bombardments is like nothing before, the screams on the streets, does this sound real to you? I am telling you it’s not one of my tricks. You need to “Open your eyes”
“13 Oct,0200 hrs, IDF: Everybody has to move from north and Gaza governorates to south Wadi Gaza. The implementation should start with the first sunlight.”
Mind: OPEN YOUR EYES, IT’S JUST ANOTHER NIGHTMARE, NOW.
Khaled: What is this? Is this another Nakba? Is this real? Shall we leave? Are we going to come back if we left? My home that my father built - it has his presence still, his portraits on the walls, What should we take with us? Should we go? Look at the walls, hug them, kiss the tiles on the floor, just in case, pack the air, pack the memories, pack your father’s soul that’s still there in his old possessions. Pack your kids’ childhood here, their first steps, their first words, the laughs, the birthdays, the cries, the tantrums, pack your wife’s love, the first days, all the days, the fights that only brought you closer, the moments when you entertained your friends, the Ramadans and the Eids, the Christmases and the New Years, the Classicos, and the movie nights, pack your successes, and your failures, pack it all.
Mind: I promise you, if you open your eyes, all of this will be gone, and you will go back to your normal life, now “Open your eyes”, but to be safe let’s move to the south.
Khaled: Water is running out quickly, there are too many people here, we need to cut back on water consumption, food is scarce, let’s cut back on that too, here is our ration, let’s work on making that last for the longest time, if we have to go out in search for food, the odds are we will not come back, and if the children are hungry. We give them our share, but what if they are thirsty? This is a good moment to open my eyes.
Mind: “Open your eyes Khaled, open your eyes, it’s just another nightmare”
News flash: Baptist hospital bombarded, 1300 people, most of which are children, are killed
Mind: See, humanity can’t fail you this much already.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES.
Gaza is wiped out.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES.
Children are killed.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
The world is watching.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
A house is destroyed.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
The world is concerned.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
His family is gone.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
A ceasefire is vetoed.
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
Her entire family is under the rubble
OPEN YOUR EYES.. OPEN YOUR EYES
“We regret to announce a complete cessation of all communications and internet services with the #Gaza Strip in light of the ongoing aggression.”
Khaled: how much battery do I have? Let’s go through the photos folder and clean them, look at the girls on the beach, and those dresses on Eid, and here they are on their first day at school. L is really into this horseback riding, H and her beads, the accessories she makes with them are pieces of art. I remember this day, brother was telling the funniest joke, those boring Shisha Thursdays, that day at work was long, still we found time to eat a lot, Mom was over the moon holding the little one, and R looks stunning here… oh, I totally forgot about this day, my sister in-law’s wedding was the talk of the town - for all the wrong reasons. That boring conference, this crazy new year’s eve party, and this… I don't need to see this, delete… delete… delete… I didn’t realize how happy we were, and how beautiful this city was…
Mind: “See - maybe this is where you are now, open your eyes Khaled, open your eyes.”
Khaled: My eyes are wide open, and I am well awake, the nightmare is the reality for us to face, but let the world close their eyes, and let the humanity fail us over and over again, and remember that as humanity failed here, it failed everywhere.”
* Note by Drooby about Khaled: “When he worked for me, Khaled never missed a beat at work despite the fact that his family was in Gaza under continuous Israeli bombardment, one of many previous attacks on Gaza. He could not go home over the holidays because it took too long to get through the bureaucracy and Israeli checkpoints. When the contract ended, he chose to forego a successful IT career in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to go back to his family and his ancestral home. He married a few years ago and spent quality time with his father before his father passed away. The last time Gaza was bombed heavily, he begged me to help him get out but the State department would not consider taking in any Palestinians as refugees because Israel’s operation was not a war. This time, Israel declared it a war, yet he can’t get on an evacuation list even though he works for UNICEF which managed to get its own international staff to safety.”