Ahmed
"Before the war I never thought of getting married-- maybe after 30 or something. But when the war started my mind changed. Every night I am awakened by airstrikes. I live near the sea, and the helicopters are coming from the sea. Whenever I hear them, I am thinking: ‘What if this one is for me?” And if these shots are for me—how is it going to feel?’ A few months ago my uncles family—they died, to the very last, including the baby. They were sheltering in a school that got bombed. They say when something like that happens, you don’t feel anything. So if it happens to me, this is what I hope. But sometimes you get trapped beneath the rubble. And it takes a long time to die. It’s very scary to think about. For the first time in my life I’ve started to feel like I need someone-- someone to tell me that everything’s going to be okay. Four months ago I became engaged. Her name is Lama. She’s the sister of my best friend Kareem, who was killed in a bombing last year. I was driving to her house today. I’d put on jeans, and was smelling very good, and I started thinking: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be so happy. Because things are so bad for everyone.’ But if I’m being honest, we are very happy. It is maybe even better than being in love in a normal situation. Sometimes when I wake up from the airstrikes: I’ll send her a very sweet message: ‘I hope you are very good,’ and so on. This is something that is nothing during normal times. But it’s a bit different when you are checking if someone is alive. All these things, which used to seem like nothing, are everything to us now. I visit her two or three times a week. Every time I go to her house, we have like five minutes or so. If she’s upset about Kareem, upset about the situation, afraid of the missiles, I’ll calm her down. I’ll give her a hug. It's a very great feeling, honestly. I don't know how to describe it. It’s not going to stop bullets, or bombs, but it makes you feel safe. By that I mean, at least I'm with her and she's with me. If something happens to me, it is going to happen to her. So we going to be in the same situation. We will live together, or we will die together. And just knowing this, it makes me feel safe."
From MSF: Ahmed Iqtifan is a computer engineering graduate, but like most young Gazans, he has turned his skills toward survival. In early 2024, he joined the water and sanitation department at Médecins Sans Frontières / MSF (Doctors Without Borders) in Gaza, Ahmed and the teams battle a crisis engineered by blockade: He coordinates clean water distributions and emergency sanitation projects, in the midst of fuel shortages, bombings, and constant displacement orders.
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