We never knew that the simplest details of our lives would one day become distant dreams…
We never knew that meeting a neighbor in the morning, sitting with a friend in the neighborhood, or a casual conversation in front of the house would become memories we search for amidst the rubble of days gone by.
Since we left Rafah for the outskirts of Khan Younis, nothing has been the same… The faces we were used to seeing have scattered, and the steps that used to bring us together every day have grown distant. We now meet our friends and neighbors in different parts of the Gaza Strip, and for a moment, we feel as though we’ve reclaimed a part of the Rafah we lost.
How painful it is to see someone from your neighborhood in a distant place, and words fail you… because you don’t just see them as a friend or neighbor, but as a piece of your home, your street, your childhood, and your memories.
Rafah’s buildings weren’t just destroyed… its people were scattered across the cities of the Strip, and we carry it with us wherever we go. Rafah has become a part of its people, reflected in their stories, their longing, and the tears that well up when they speak of it.
Today, we don’t just miss Rafah… we miss all of Gaza; we miss our neighborhoods, our mosques, our schools, our markets, the faces of our families, and the laughter of our children. We miss the life that was once ordinary, a life whose value we only realized when we lost it.
Longing after longing… pain after pain… a wound that time cannot easily heal.
And the question that every person in Gaza asks remains: How long will this absence last? When will we return to our homes, not to displacement camps, to be reunited with our loved ones? When will life return to our streets, and when will we reclaim the days that were stolen from us?
We ask God to protect Gaza and its people, to reunite us, and to grant us the day we return to our homes in safety… a day when our reunions are not chance encounters in displacement camps, but beautiful reunions in our neighborhoods, among our families. Rafah will remain in our hearts… and Gaza will remain a homeland that distances cannot divide
Abu Mostafa-Gaza