Gaza: Life stops at coastal road block

Palestinian students from Gaza take the coastal route during the Israeli siege. (WAFA)

WAFA --Thousands of Palestinian students, merchants, patients and drivers were forced to take cover behind trucks, vehicles and carts on the blocked Gaza coastal road when Israeli soldiers stationed at the watchtowers of Nitzarim colony opened fired on them as they were passing.

I took cover behind a truck along with two university students.

"Hey, hey, you are behind a fuel truck, leave now!" a cameraman shouted at us. We were shocked and fled from our spot behind the truck. The cameraman was warned by a hawker to hide his camera, as Israeli soldiers in the watchtowers target journalists. Taking his camera, he hid behind a truck carrying panels of wood.

Bullets were hitting vegetable boxes and other goods contained in a long queue of waiting trucks. A group of students and some elderly people jumped from a donkey cart and hurriedly sought cover behind a van carrying chickens.

Abdulaziz Mahmoud, a 20-year-old student, was holding his books and watching several carts moving along the cliff of the Gaza Sea. He was trying to reach his college in Khanyounis (situated south of Gaza), but he was unable to get there because of the road block. The Abu Holi checkpoint and the coastal road block have divided the Gaza Strip into three parts.

"I study nursing; I dislike missing any lecture. I am careful to attend all lectures, so I come and try to reach college," he said. "Imagine if each student did not reach college; it means that academic life would be paralyzed. It is unfair, we must continue studying."

Maisa Dwidar, 21, who studies computer science at the same college as Mahmoud, also expressed her feelings of deep sorrow.

"They (Israelis) do not only kill people, but they also kill our education, economy, humanity and future," she said. "Why do they close the road? I was supposed to sit for an exam, what will I do now? You see, they kill our daily life," Dwidar said, heaving a sigh as she left to return home.

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