Aid worker diary-Part 19

Aid worker diary: Part 19
Hatem Shurrab is an aid worker in Gaza with the British-based charity Islamic Relief Worldwide.
In the latest instalment of his diary, he describes the loss and destruction he has encountered while carrying out his work in the Gaza Strip.
GAZA: 21 January

Hatem Shurrab works for Islamic Relief in Gaza

Today I went to an area called Jiban Al Rayad, north of the Gaza Strip and near the Israeli border.
I was in the area to visit my colleague Alaa, who I wrote about a few weeks ago. Alaa had decided to leave his home on the first day of the ground invasion, when the shelling in his neighbourhood intensified.
He and his brother lived in the same house, each brother with a separate floor to live in.
Alaa left with his wife and two children. He asked his brother, sister-in-law and the children to leave too - but the shelling became very intense and Alaa's brother was unable to leave.
Alaa sounded exhausted, and he choked back tears as he continued telling me what had happened.
He described how his brother, sister-in-law and the children had huddled under the stairs, trying to shelter from the bombs outside.
During the three-hour ceasefire, Alaa's sister-in-law went to the kitchen to cook a meal for the family, and the children went out to get some fresh air.
A missile hit the house - it came in through the window.
One of the children, a baby aged 17 months, was killed. The second missile hit Alaa's sister-in-law in the kitchen, and injured Alaa's brother and his son.
Deep disgust
Alaa asked me to follow him as he walked on the rubble and debris, all that remains of his home.
It was so hard seeing my friend and colleague broken and full of sorrow.
I thanked God that he was still alive but felt heartbroken seeing him like this, and felt deep disgust at the brutality that had been unleashed on good people like Alaa and his family.
As Alaa and I continued walking we found pile after pile of rubble where houses once stood.
It was devastating to see these children cold, vulnerable and unsure of what the future holds of them
I saw smoke coming from a partially damaged house, and as I got closer, I found three children - two girls and a young boy.
They were standing around a fire that they had made to try to stay warm and to heat water.
The children were dressed in flimsy clothes that were not offering a great deal of protection from the bitter cold and they did not have any shoes on.
I got talking to one of the girls, Nima, age 12, who was with her younger brother Rami and their cousin.
I asked them where their parents were. Nima told me that her father had been killed and her mother was in a tent not far from the house, as people had gathered to pay their condolences and say prayers for their father.
The children told me they no longer had a home.
I smiled and shook their hands and tried to make them laugh. Sometimes they would smile and many times the girls would be fighting back tears.
It was devastating to see these children cold, vulnerable and unsure of what the future holds of them. They looked traumatised, so I stopped asking them questions.
Alaa and I walked around the area for an hour to asses the damage, and along the way we came across hundreds and hundreds of uprooted citrus trees.

Some 50,000 Gazans have been left homeless by the bombing
I asked Alaa what had happened in the area. He told me the area was a citrus grove.
Like olive trees, citrus trees are embedded in the culture of Palestine, we see the trees as sacred. It is soul destroying to see what has happened to the citrus grove.
Everywhere around me all I could see was massive destruction and devastation.
I assisted our relief team in distributing food parcels to 1,000 families in the south of Gaza. I saw many families returning to their homes from the shelters that they had living in.
As I was walking, people could see I was an aid worker, as I was wearing my Islamic Relief jacket, and kept asking me to come and see what was left of their homes.
I was taken to a mini market that was funded by Islamic Relief. The owner told me that he had obtained a loan from Islamic Relief as part of our micro credit programme, that helps people establish a livelihood.
He had always dreamed of having his own business and now he had nothing, his mini market had been badly damaged in the attacks on Gaza.
I feel shattered by the events of the past 21 days.