July 17, 2014, 14:00 local time
Father of five Mostafa Kahlout is a CARE Economic Empowerment Program coordinator in Gaza. His role involves helping more than 8,000 vulnerable households in Gaza to access food and earn an income, mostly through small scale farming. Mostafa and his family live in Gaza, and have barely left the house since the Israeli military operation began last week.
The ceasefire will end in an hour, but it has been good to have a break. I took my little girl to the market to get some vegetables, she wanted to stay with me.
I hoped the ceasefire would not be for just a few hours, and then back to the bombing and the fears and all our problems, but it is due to end soon.
My family are really in a terrible state. They are just fearing and worrying. It is worst for my five children, actually they are starting to be angry now. I try to calm them down and relieve their constant stress but obviously it doesn’t help.
My wife is just so worried about the kids, it’s really a terrible feeling all of the time. It kills your heart.
I worry for the pregnant women, the shock of the loud noises, they are turning up to hospitals to be near the doctors, but the hospitals are full of casualties. The doctors are doing their best, but there are no beds, people are on the floors, it’s really all they can do to just do life-saving work right now.
My youngest daughter Hala saw her friends in the ceasefire, we live in a very close-knit neighbourhood. I wanted her to relieve all her stress, so I bought her some chocolate – anything to make her smile at the moment.
We have had no water for five days and the electricity cuts mean we only have power for six hours a day.
Inshallah (God willing), the war will be over soon.
Read Mostafa Kahlout's previous blog. To find out more about CARE's work in the West Bank and Gaza, click here.