Stabbed in the heart
'Walid al-Shawa dreamed of a bright future when he was younger. Yet adult life has been cruel despite years of planning.
Starting as a child, Walid spent 10 years moving from one job to another. A permanent job was beyond reach in his besieged Gaza community, which suffered the closure of industrial and commercial institutions.
His future became decidedly more bleak when Israeli forces destroyed his home in March – just three weeks before he was due to get married.
On 25 March, he was spending a pleasant evening with his fiancée, Naela al-Jalis, in her house in the al-Shujaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City. As they prepared to sit down to dinner, his mother called, spoiling the moment.
She asked Walid to return home to his al-Rimal neighborhood in the city. The whole neighborhood was being evacuated following an Israeli threat to shell a nearby building used by the Gaza authorities.
Walid quickly drove home, reaching the neighborhood in four minutes. He found himself looking at his small apartment that he then shared with his sister Hiba and her four children. Distraught, he imagined how it might be destroyed before his eyes and how he and Naela would not be able to move in after their wedding.
At that moment, he felt his life prospects to be in turmoil.
Ten minutes after his arrival, the “warning” missiles started falling. The vicinity was repeatedly bombarded. The building was hit by eight missiles, according to Al Mezan, a human rights group.
Eventually the four floors and eight apartment units of the Hassouna residential building came crashing down.
In the devastating aftermath, Walid said: “I feel demoralized. I don’t know what to do. I lost my future. When I look at my destroyed house, it feels like I’m being stabbed in the heart.”'
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