“I Don’t Want to Be Killed, I Just Want to Go to Kindergarten”: Escaping From Death to Death in Gaza

By Nour Mohamed

For the past four weeks, the Sheikh Redwan neighborhood of Gaza City, one of the most densely populated urban centers, has been under relentless assault. Israeli forces have intensified their attacks with a terrifying arsenal: booby-trapped robots detonating near homes, tank fire, relentless shelling, rockets, Apache helicopters, and the haunting presence of quadcopters that shoot bullets, throw grenades, and spread terror through the air.

These machines don’t just kill; they burn, threaten, and terrorize the people of Sheikh Redwan. Nights have become unbearable, louder, more terrifying, and filled with the haunting fear that any moment could be our last.

One week ago, my family made the painful decision to flee south after the Israeli military claimed that the area would be safer. But leaving felt like tearing my own heart out. The only reason I had the strength to go was my four-year-old son, Adam.

One night, after Israeli forces detonated a booby-trapped robot near us, Adam turned to me with tear-filled eyes and said, “Mama, I don’t want to be killed. I want to go to kindergarten.” His small voice, trembling with fear, shattered my soul.

How is it fair that a child, who once lived a happy life, now trembles in terror and longs for nothing more than a simple, ordinary childhood?

Escaping From Death to Death

We finally reached al-Maghazi Camp in central Gaza, exhausted and broken. This was the tenth time, at least, that we had been forcibly displaced by Israel, I have lost count. Our journey was silent, filled with tears. None of us wanted to leave our homes in Gaza City.

But safety was an illusion. On the very night of our arrival, two separate Israeli strikes hit al-Maghazi Camp, killing at least six people, including a father and his daughter.

“Are we escaping from death to death?” I asked my husband, who, with a desperate look, said, “There is no safe place in Gaza.”

I regret leaving Sheikh Redwan. If I could return, even to the rubble and ruins, I would. I would rather sleep on the streets of Gaza City than be displaced. But this is the reality we live in: forced to flee in hopes of saving our children.

Since October 2023, this has been our cruel fate. The so-called “safe zones” declared by the Israeli military have become nothing more than death traps. Family members are lost, massacre follows massacre, displacement is endless, and yet, the world watches in silence.

Adam’s plea haunts me. “I don’t want to be killed. I want to go to kindergarten.” This is not just his wish, it is the simple hope of every child in Gaza. But instead of a childhood, they face a nightmare of bombs, fear, and death.

How long must we endure this cycle of genocide? How long will children like Adam be forced to choose between fleeing death and facing it head-on?

The world must wake up. Because no child should have to beg for the right to simply go to kindergarten.