When my sister first met Diaa online, he was simply a young man in Gaza eager to learn English so that he could pursue his studies and keep education alive despite the blockade. Over time, their exchanges turned into friendship, grounded in his relentless desire to learn and teach others. Today, Diaa can no longer reach my sister — he and his family are being displaced again and again, caught in cycles of ethnic cleansing and forced from their homes. His voice, though cut off now, still echoes through the messages he sent before communication was lost.
These are Diaa’s words, originally sent in Arabic to my sister:
“My brother Mu‘taz — well-known engineers in Gaza — they designed car showrooms and amazing villas, shops, chalets, houses, towers, and we even had an office in Al-Saraya in Al-Rimal. Thank God, within five years they became known and grew. Suddenly everything ended, and my sister’s dream — since she was seven to become an engineer — ended; now she is 34 and her home and future and past are gone. She used to be among the top at university. Likewise my brother Baha was top of his class and a TA at the university and now he is studying for a master’s in electronics. Imagine.
I am not only talking about us — all of Gaza was like this, full of dreams and ambitions. Now everything has ended, and do you know our biggest dream? To drink good water, for fuel to enter the country, to have nutritious food, and for the war to finish. I just want to live for real; we’ve lived through many wars and we have been hurt a lot.
That’s why, if you noticed or asked why I study while the war and bombing are around me, do you know why? Because I’m afraid ignorance will take over me. I’m afraid I’ll start thinking only about the war and forget my dreams and goals. I’m afraid my mind will stop understanding if I leave it without practice and study, and I’ll waste my life since I’m at the start of my twenties. That’s why it doesn’t matter to me if a hundred rockets are around me — if I have the means, I will keep going. I love culture, study, effort, education and success — I search for them, I search for them.”
Diaa’s words show us the human cost of this war: a sister who once dreamed of becoming an engineer and is now left without a home or future, brothers who excelled at their studies but saw everything vanish overnight, and a generation whose greatest wish has been reduced to clean water, food, and the end of bombs. Even as rockets fall around him, Diaa refuses to surrender his mind to war — he studies so that ignorance does not take over, because he still believes in learning, culture, and success.
Diaa’s story reminds us that behind every destroyed building is a human life, a dream, and a future struggling to survive. You can help Diaa and his family hold on to education and hope by supporting their fundraiser here:
https://chuffed.org/project/help-diaa
