It’s a hellish story that no one should ever have to endure. But for one journalist, and his family, that’s exactly what happened.
On Sunday, CNN reporter Mohammed El-Kurd, who is based in Jerusalem, outlined in an essay the desperate story of his family’s flight from the Gaza City. In the piece, El-Kurd described a harrowing journey of jostling for space in an overcrowded, air-conditionless minibus in the middle of an unforgiving desert, all to escape the shelling from both sides of the conflict.
He wrote: “When I boarded the bus, my mum hugged me in despair. She said, ‘It’s never been this bad…..It felt like the sky was falling down on us. We had no safe area.’”
What El-Kurd and his family experienced is not uncommon. For the last two weeks, Israeli airstrikes have hammered Gaza City, killing more than 218 people, including over 60 children. The bombing campaign has also damaged over 1,200 buildings, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.
The situation in Gaza is made worse by the fact that it is a densely populated area, and people have difficulty finding refuge. It also doesn’t help that Gaza City is surrounded by a high wall on three sides, which works to further compound the problem.
It is heartbreaking to think about the terrible circumstances that El-Kurd and his family had to endure. The worrisome situation in the Gaza strip cannot be ignored, and the international community must come together to put pressure on both sides to ensure that the truth of his experience is never repeated.
The desperate flight of one family, documented by El-Kurd, is a somber reminder of the ongoing struggle in the region, and the need for peace. As El-Kurd wrote so powerfully, “There will be no safe area until both sides come to the negotiating table and sign a permanent ceasefire.”