'No place safe': a Gaza journalist's life under siege

STORY:

"Here is the family, they're gathering all together, also in a place far away from the windows"

Plestia Alaqad is a Gazan journalist

She's been posting snippets of

life under siege on social media

"I was trying to explain things but I think you can hear them now."

as Israel bombs Gaza in retaliation

for the deadly Hamas attack

"...you can't see anything."

[Plestia Alaqad, Gazan journalist]

"No place is safe. Me personally I've evacuated three times since yesterday. Like, okay, they tell you to evacuate, you go to a friend’s house, then they call them to evacuate, you go to another friend’s house. The situation is just terrible... we don't have water, we don't have electricity, we don't have internet."

The 22-year-old says she finally understands

her late grandfather's stories about 'Nakba'

Referring to the 1948 war that created Israel

and led to mass dispossession of Palestinians

"To be honest, you know how some things you don't understand them unless you experience them? So I am 22 years old, yesterday, I understood the Nakba fully, completely. Like, okay, I know information about it but my mind, I couldn't process it to be honest, can't imagine until yesterday."

"We are evacuating right now."

'Nakba' is the Arabic word for 'catastrophe'

"We stayed at the hospital till 11:00 this morning, then we have to leave we called our friends, 'we're coming', 'come'. We went to our friend’s house, only 10 minutes, like I only entered the bathroom then they called them we will bomb, you have to evacuate, so we are, like, all standing on the street. Evacuate to where? like, evacuate to where? It's not safe.”