She was not angry, which made it much harder. She got in touch “I just want to share my stories” (and happy to use her name). She told me about completing her nursing studies and briefly working at a children’s hosptal department (I was scared to ask “does it still exist?”). She was generous and asked me about my early work there (I was scared to ask “does the university still exist?”). She also offered to read our first paper with my late friend Abdel Aziz:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abdel-Aziz/publication/227768171_Post-traumatic_Stress_Reactions_in_Children_of_War/links/5a5745fba6fdcc30f86df6f9/Post-traumatic-Stress-Reactions-in-Children-of-War.pdf
[This was the beginning of many projects on how war conflict affected children (I was scared to ask “do the children from those studies still exist?”). At the time, there was limited evidence and approaches on directly capturing children’s distress. So, I guessed it must have helped. It has been cited by many international reports, especially on refugee children, so it must have helped. But has it actually helped the children of Gaza? Definitely not. If anything, I feel ashamed rather than proud that this work may have colluded with their suffering.]
Going back to Israa (verbatim from our conversation):
“The situation here inside the tent is very difficult. I don’t know what will happen to my future”…(shame)
“Talking is very easy, but the reality is difficult. Maybe I will be with the dead in the morning. No one knows his fate in Gaza”…(shame)
“Stop the war for us, this is our only hope”…(shame)
panosvostanis 