Note: As AidGaza Team , we are relaying this message AS IS from Iman.
An ailment weighing heavily on my heart.
(Miss) Iman Emad Mohammed Maarouf, Palestinian from Gaza, 25 years old, studied business administration.
Before October 7, my life was full of joy, enthusiasm, and purpose.
On October 10, our house was bombed directly and completely by the Israeli occupation. I have never experienced a harder situation in my life than hearing the news that my family’s house had been bombed, with my family inside, and then my mother’s suffering under the rubble for 9 hours. The hardest day of my life was the passing of my father and mother. It was not easy. I will never forget that 10 minutes before they passed, my father said the words, “Take care of yourself,” and my mother too.
A night when I did not sleep, unable to believe what was happening… You were shrouded and buried. That day I felt that this universe had become empty and hollow, with no meaning. I was lost in a strange, pitch-black space for several months; I found no pleasure, happiness, or taste in life after them.
On 31/10/2024, I was forced to displace far from the rubble of the bombed house. I displaced to southern Gaza and then to the central Gaza Strip. My suffering increased because I could not find a place, not even a tent, not even a classroom in a school to shelter me. More than that, there is no one to provide for me after my only brother was trapped/besieged in Gaza.
So I became orphaned of both father and mother, alone, with not even a glimmer of hope to continue in the bitterness of this life, but I am forced to confront these hardships relying on myself.
I returned to the north on 31/1/2025. My only brother and I gathered in a tent over the rubble of our house. We stayed two months in hardship, my brother and I, trying to arrange a place for me to live in…
On 3/4/2025, in the afternoon, I was sitting on my phone when suddenly my phone rang, showing “My brother Abu Emad.”
Me: Hello, welcome Abu Emad. A young man answered and said to me, “Whose phone is this?”
Me: “My brother’s phone. Who am I speaking with, sorry?”
The young man: “The owner of this phone is in Al-Maamadani Hospital, martyred.”
At that same moment, my uncle came to me and told me, “Get dressed; Ashraf has been martyred.”
It was the hardest shock of my life, because he was my only hope after losing my father and mother.
Now I am in my uncle’s care, but resources are not available to me much, and my uncle’s financial situation is very difficult.
And I am suffering very, very, very, very much, and my health and psychological condition are very difficult.