In Gaza, pain is not measured in tears, but in the hours a kidney patient waits for a drop of water or a flicker of electricity that never stays steady.
Here, life is not life as others know it; it is a long pause between the beeping of machines and the quiet fear that everything might suddenly stop.
In crowded hospitals, patients sit on cold metal chairs, faces pale, eyes following the nurse as if she were a faint beam of light cutting through the dark. The lights fade before treatments are complete, and clean water is scarce, heavy with salt and effort. Food suited to their condition feels like a distant dream, and bottled water, a rare treasure, demands more than one person alone can give.
Finding a specialist is like chasing a thin ray of light through a long night; only a few remain able to work amid the ruins. Those who can be reached come after a long struggle, after knocking on countless doors and waiting through days that steal from life as surely as disease steals from the body.
These people endure the unbearable, yet they smile. In the face of death, they offer life — as if it were all they had left. They share a cup of water, console one another without words, and show that unity can achieve what might seem impossible.
My father fights the battle of life itself in quiet depth — a visible fight carved into his tired body, felt in every breath he takes, as his body slowly wears under constant fatigue, and each passing day demands ongoing treatment just to keep breathing and enduring. I walk beside him along this long path of exhaustion, carrying some of this weight for him, and learning from his quiet resilience that hope does not need a voice to survive.
This is how kidney patients live in Gaza, on the edge of life, between rising pain and the scarcity of everything. And yet, they are still here: breathing despite helplessness, enduring with a quiet patience that teaches the world that humanity still lives, even when forgotten, even when suffering hides itself in the shadows.
If you are able to help, any donation can help ease my father’s daily suffering, cover his medications, and assist him in visiting the doctor for necessary tests. https://chuffed.org/project/138285-help-sehwel-family-with-their-medical-treatment