GAZA, (PIC)
In one of the streets of Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City, Naila Marish, 25 years old, sits on the edge of a life that has completely changed due to the Israeli genocide war.
She never imagined that she would end up between displacement, injury, and paralysis, after living a simple life like any young woman dreaming of a calm future alongside her husband and her young daughter.
The story began from Shuja’iyya
The story begins from the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza City, where Naila was residing before the pace of events intensified, forcing her to displace with her family, just like thousands of families.
She tells the PIC correspondent, “We left our home against our will, and we went to Al-Rimal neighborhood… we stayed in the street for two days, looking for a place to shelter in.”
Despite the cruelty of displacement, Naila tries to regain some reassurance, “We were living in the street, but the presence of my mother and my family around me made me feel that life was still okay.”
Bombing caused the tragedy
But this feeling did not last long. On July 8, 2025, while Naila was preparing food with her mother, everything changed in a moment.
“A huge explosion happened… I felt like I lost consciousness. I opened my eyes, I saw my father pulling me, and my mother on the ground soaked in her blood,” Naila adds.
She tries to move, to save her mother, but her body no longer responds. She says, “I was bleeding, and my siblings and my father were all injured… it was an indescribable shock.”
After minutes, Naila begins to lose consciousness, while images overlap in her head. “The world became white… and I began to recite the Shahada, my whole life ribbon passed before me,” Naila says.
And before she completely lost consciousness, she remembers one sentence that came out of her, “I don’t feel anything… but no one cut off my leg.”
Ambulances transport her to the hospital, where she loses consciousness for five days. When she wakes up, she finds herself surrounded by medical devices.
“I found a tube in my chest… I don’t understand what is happening. I felt myself in a dream,” she says with bitterness.
She loses consciousness again, and wakes up after one week, to start the heavy questions. The first was about her mother, she says, “I asked where is my mother… they said in intensive care, so they wouldn’t make me sad.”
The truth is harsh
But the truth was harsher: her mother had passed away a week ago. Naila did not know the truth directly, but heard it by chance.
She continues, “I heard someone at the door telling my father: may Allah reward you for your loss… here I collapsed. It’s impossible that my mother is gone.”
After that, she enters a harsh psychological state that lasts for weeks, and about that she says, “I stayed 30 days without food or drink, only on IV fluids… I developed malnutrition, and my health condition worsened more.”
But the shock did not stop at the loss, doctors inform her later that her injury led to a fracture in the spinal vertebrae, and damage to the spinal cord, which caused permanent paraplegia.
“I was shocked… I am still young. Why should I live paralyzed? What is my fault?” she says with pain and bitterness.
Today, Naila lives a reality completely different from her previous life. She lost the ability to move, feel, and even control her basic body functions. She says with a heavy voice: “I can’t get up… I can’t control myself. My whole life was destroyed.”
The suffering increases with the absence of proper care, as she currently lives in harsh conditions, without the minimum medical needs. “I am sitting in the street, and my condition needs care… I need basic medical supplies.”
Despite all the loss, injury, and brokenness she has gone through, Naila still clings to a simple hope, “I wish to walk again… to stand on my feet… and to carry my daughter.”
