Aya’s Story: A Gaza Teen Dreaming of Medicine

The war has taken from me the simplest things a girl my age should have. I loved studying, and I dreamed of becoming a doctor. I spent my days between school, memorizing the Quran, and writing stories and novels. I had a huge passion for life and for everything I learned.

But with the war, I suddenly grew up.

I no longer thought like a child, or even like a 15-year-old. Constant displacement, fear, hunger, and daily responsibilities forced part of me to grow up too soon, while the child inside me is still trying to live a normal life.

We were displaced more than 20 times, living through months of hunger, fear, and instability. Every day, life felt narrower. But what hurt me most was watching my family suffer in front of me and not being able to help them.

On the night I was injured, we were asleep in a tent crowded with dozens of displaced families. In moments, everything turned into screaming, chaos, fire, and dust. People were running in every direction, and it felt like the end of the world.

My mother, who was pregnant, was injured, and so was my brother Ahmad. At first, I didn’t even realize I was hurt. All I felt was a pain like electricity running through my arm. Even in the ambulance, I wasn’t afraid for myself. I just kept saying, “Thank God it was me, and not my little brothers and sisters.”

I stayed at Al-Shifa Hospital for about 150 days and underwent dozens of surgeries. Some had to be postponed because I was so malnourished from the war. Hospitals, operating rooms, and treatments replaced school, books, and the dreams I used to draw for myself.

Still, I hold on to hope. Some days, I feel my dream fading. But I believe that one day I will recover, return to my studies, and become a doctor who eases the kind of pain I have known myself.

Read about FAJR’s medical evacuations from Gaza and the MedEvac program, or see FAJR’s evacuation cases.