Maria’s Story: Gaza Girl Treated in Jordan

“Maria, bring the firewood. Let’s light the fire.”

Maria and her father had just come back from gathering wood to cook a meal. In the middle of the war, they were trying to have an ordinary day and make something warm to eat.

She went over to help him arrange the firewood.

Suddenly, a drone struck them.

In seconds, the place was filled with fire, rubble, and screaming.

Maria’s mother was killed instantly. Her father died of his wounds in front of his children. Maria and her two sisters, Maya and Layan, were badly injured and trapped beneath the rubble.

“I could hear my sister calling for help,” Maria says. “I was under the rubble, and I couldn’t breathe.”

Maria spent a long time in intensive care, not knowing her parents had been killed. She was told they were in another hospital, and with a child’s innocence, she believed it and waited to see them again.

About a month later, she learned the truth. She completely broke down.

Maria, the eldest and always the closest to her sisters, was never the same after that day. She began to worry about them constantly. She kept asking about them and trying to stay by their side, as if she were afraid of losing someone again.

Since then, she has struggled to sleep. Loud noises frighten her, and sometimes she cries when she remembers the last moment she shared with her parents.

Maria came to Jordan with her grandmother for treatment. Her sisters stayed behind in Gaza, and a large part of her heart stayed with them.

“I hope I can finish my treatment,” she says softly, “and go back to hug my sisters in Gaza.”

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